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Fire Engulfs Shenandoah Home

SHENANDOAH — Flames engulfed a home in Schuylkill County. A viewer captured video of the flames tearing through a home on South Market Street in Shenandoa...
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SHENANDOAH -- Flames engulfed a home in Schuylkill County.

A viewer captured video of the flames tearing through a home on South Market Street in Shenandoah around 11:30 p.m. on Thursday.

"You can see it had the wire burning, it was like unreal. The fire was pretty bad," said witness Ed Jones.

"It was crazy. It was like, we were watching TV and next Thing i know, fire!" said Heather Zapalac.

Zapalac and her husband were in one of the two second-floor apartments with their dog and two cats when the fire gutted this building. They were just getting ready for bed, and are grateful they were awake and everyone made it out safely.

"If it were after 12, he would've took his medication and would've been in bed. We wouldn't have known what was going on. I couldn't get him out of bed. He would've been asleep. Something could've happened. I've thought about that constantly," said Zapalac.

People who live in an apartment inside this home believe the fire was intentionally set, because when they came out they saw cardboard and wood burning. It accelerated so quickly it burned the side of a home and garage across the street.

"It was thought and processed through, they knew what they were doing," said Dave Zapalac.

Just a few streets away from this fire, two weeks ago, about a dozen row homes went up in flames. That fire was determined to be arson.

So when this latest fire happened, instantly Dave Zapalac questioned if this fire could be the work of an arsonist on the loose.

Adding to Zapalac's suspicion, when he first ran from the apartment and noticed the flames, he saw not one but two fires out front.

Zapalac was able to put the smaller fire out with this fire extinguisher before the other one got out of control.

State police fire marshals are still investigating the official cause of the latest fire in Shenandoah.

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