DAMASCUS TOWNSHIP — Fire destroyed a home off Chicopee Road near Damascus late Thursday night.
It claimed the lives of a family’s two rescue dogs. Newswatch 16 talked with the family Friday morning as they began looking over the damage.
Amy and Darren Miduski drove up to their family’s part-time home, taking a close look at all of the damage in the daylight.
A photo shows the flames that ripped through the home Thursday night off Chicopee Road in Damascus Township.
The Miduski’s two dogs, Angel and Brandy, were trapped inside.
The family had gone to a New Year’s party just down the road.
“I started kicking windows out, trying to save them, and calling them, and then, when the smoke hit me in the face, I couldn’t even breathe, so I knew they couldn’t have survived,” said Amy Miduski.
The dogs didn’t make it. Both were rescues, but three-year-old Angel was extra special to the Miduskis and their two sons.
“Angel was saved. Somebody threw the dog in a trash can,” said Darren Miduski.
This fire also took away a piece of history from Wayne County. The house was believed to be the original schoolhouse in the Damascus area.
“It’s about 100 or more years old, roughly,” said Miduski.
Miduski’s father, Ray Derman, owned this small home and says it’s where his family would go to get away on the weekends, a place where they could enjoy the outdoors together.
Seeing the damage he says, “Not good, obviously. A ot of memories in there. I just think about all the pictures that were taken over, oh, 40 years. Everything is gone,” said Ray Derman Jr.
Now this family, whose other home is in New Jersey, is holding on to what memories they have here, not sure if they’ll rebuild.
They say they’re thankful to still have each other.
“It is a blessing that no human life was taken,” said Miduski.
State Police fire marshals were expected to stop by this home in Wayne County to try to determine exactly what started this fire.
