Fire Kills Five Amish Children

Oasis Newsfeatures Wire Services

Rudy and Lizzie Wengerd lived simply and worked hard, supporting their nine children with odd jobs at a livestock auction house and selling baked goods at flea markets.
Dreaming of an even simpler, more traditionally Amish life, the Wengerds were in the process of stripping their "English," or modern house, of its amenities. The family also planned to take up farming.

In one night, fire engulfed their wood-frame home and five of Wengerd's nine children died in what fire officials are calling the worst tragedy ever to hit this Amish community in rural western Pennsylvania. The fire gutted the two-story house and left only one wall and a brick chimney standing.

Authorities said Wednesday that a wood- and coal-burning furnace in the basement had caused the fire, though they were unsure whether an ember from the furnace or the heat it generated sparked the blaze Tuesday night.

"They were hard working people. They had, what, nine children? They had to be just to support their children," said Dave Ryder, 59, owner of a diner and motel who knew the Wengerd family. "These people lost everything they had."

Neighbors said Rudy Wengerd worked at the Mercer Livestock Auction once a week. His wife, Lizzie Wengerd, and one of their daughters frequently baked pies and doughnuts and sold them at a flea market in nearby Youngstown, Ohio.

Friends who met with the family Wednesday said there were acts of heroism in the short minutes before fire consumed the house.

Don Shelenberger, 71, a retired machinist who said he visited the family at the home of Lizzie Wengerd's mother, said one of the boys jumped out of the second-floor window during the fire and tried to save his siblings.

He described the family's mood as somber.

"They huddled together. They are there to comfort one another. I had never seen a grief-stricken house like that," Shelenberger said.

Help already had arrived Wednesday in this farming community about 55 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, near the Ohio border. Shelenberger said the Wengerds were receiving donations, including food, furniture, jars of money and clothing.

Moses Miller, 26, owner of a local Amish supply store and Rudy Wengerd's cousin, said it wasn't the family's lost possessions that worried him.

"I'm sure materially, financially, it won't be a problem. The problem will be the children," Miller said.

The blaze started in the basement around 10 p.m. Tuesday and quickly spread through the home. The flames sent a second-floor room where at least five of the children where sleeping, crashing into the basement, said state police Trooper Randall McPherson.

Killed in the fire were Katie, 14; Levi, 12; Neil, 11; John, 4; and Jonathon, 2, police said. Their bodies were recovered from the basement and the coroner was conducting autopsies, police said.

The parents escaped into the bitter cold with four children, but the fire was too intense for anyone to get back inside the two-story house to rescue the others, police said.
Authorities said it was the worst tragedy ever to hit town.

"This is the worst fire Pulaski Township has ever experienced," said Pulaski volunteer Fire Chief Richard Show.

Ryder put out a gallon jar by his register in Ryder's Restaurant to collect donations for the displaced family, though he didn't think it would be needed.

"The Amish take care of their own. You may come back in a week and see a new house where you're standing," he said.

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