Pocono News Section

Columbia County fire kills two

Columbia County fire kills two - Tuesday, December 18, 2007 at 6:10PM EST

Tuesday, Dec 18, 2007 @06:10pm EST

A double fatal fire in hemlock township Columbia county.

77 year old Vera Kramer and her son 43 Scott Kramer died in the blaze.

The early morning fire turned deadly quick.

Emergency crews and neighbors say the fire spread so quickly, that the Kramers didn't have a chance to be rescued.

Flames shoot sky high out of Vera and Scott Kramers house in hemlock township.

Video, courtesy of bloom-u-today dot com shows the fire just after it started at 5:45 Tuesday morning.

Neighbors tried to help, but it was too late.

Neighbor Kerry broadt says, "ran into the front yard, the flames were way above the tree tops, so then i knew there was no way, i couldn't get past the pine trees, it was so hot."

The fire killed Vera and Scott Kramer.

It took cadaver dogs all morning and afternoon to find the charred bodies.

Their remains were taken away by ambulance.

Hemlock Township police chief Michael VanDine says, "there was no hope with this fire. I don't know why, if someone didn't disocver it soon enough. But by the time the first crews arrived, the entire house was gone."

Fire crews, and a state police fire investigator sifted through the scene, looking for clues into what started the fire.

Emergency crews say there was wood burner inside the house, and don't know if that's what started the fire.

But they say that's where they're centering the search for the cause.

While crews look for the cause, people living nearby are remembering what they called great neighbors.

Harry Strine of Hemlock Township says, "very nice people, very cooperative, just nice people we are a very close knit group of people up here."

Now the close knit neighborhood is dealing with one of the worst fires it's ever seen.

The Hemlock Township police chief tells us this is the township's first fatal fire in years.

The search for the cause is still under investigation