Pocono News Section

Couple Dead in Schuylkill County Fire

Couple Dead in Schuylkill County Fire - Saturday, February 9, 2008 at 6:49PM EST

Reported by: Jill Konopka
Saturday, Feb 9, 2008 @06:49pm EST
((WEST MAHONY TOWNSHIP, SCHULKILL COUNTY) - A fully involved fire kept dozens of firefighters from entering a home in Schuylkill county late Friday night.
Early Saturday morning crews pulled the body of the homeowner, hours later they found the woman's boyfriend.
Both, according to the Schuylkill County Coroner had been sleeping on the second floor.

Several hours after battling a big blaze at 72 Raven Run Road, crews recovered the bodies of 47-year-old James Lewis Caufield and 49-year-old Geraldine Hartz.

Monica Sporz is a friend of Geraldine’s, "One of the neighbors said it was G.G. I said no way." Firefighters found Jim and G.G. as her friends knew her , buried in the basement.

Crews say the couple was sound asleep when all three floors collapsed and the roof caved in.

Al Kaminsky is a neighbor, "That's devastating, they've been there since I'm born. I guess. I came right up, right up here. I just talked to her daughter, she's devastated."

One by one, neighbors and the victims' friends showed up in disbelief. They say they'll never forget the woman who didn't ever "beat around the bush."

Monica Sporz added, “(She was) funny and she'd tell you the way it is, like me. If she didn't like ya, she'd tell ya."

Sporz says she’ll also miss West Mahonoy Townships best mechanics. Sporz said, "She was the greatest mechanic you'd want to know, if you had a problem with your car and nobody knew it you came and asked her.”

Crews had a tough time fighting the fully involved fire, it was too dangerous to go inside. They had to haul in outside water tankers too.

Assistant Chief Richard Stevens with the William Penn Volunteer Fire Company, "It's one big pile of mud and water that has to get pumped out and debris lifted out by hand."

But it was “Ebey” the border collie from Northeast Search And Rescue out of Stroudsburg that helped State Police Fire Marshall’s sniff out the second victim.

Fire Fighters are still searching for a cause. Asst. Chief Richard Stevens said, "Rear of the home was fully involved. Pennsylvania State Police are following burn patterns and so on and so forth."

A double fatal fire that stole the lives of good friends to Lost Creek Number 2. Autopsies on both victims were done late Saturday afternoon. There's sill no word on their exact cause of death.