Children Evacuated From Burning Lower Merion Home

Firefighters have extinguished a massive fire that severely damaged a Lower Merion Township home over the course of nearly three hours Thursday, officials said.

The fire started about 11 a.m. on the 200 block of Winding Way, Lower Merion Fire Chief Chas McGarvey said. About 2 p.m., the chief said it was out, but for a few "hot spots." (See video of the flames in the upper left corner of this article.)

Officials said no one was injured. Homeowner Stephen Ficchi told Patch four of his six children were at home when the fire started. They were all safely evacuated from the home, and he raced home from work to meet them.

Ficchi said he believes the fire might have started in his daughter's bedroom by an electrical Christmas candle. McGarvey said no cause of the fire has been determined before an official investigation.

The fire destroyed the upper floors, rendering the home uninhabitable. Leonard Pavel, a neighbor of the Ficchis, said many neighbors will be willing to shelter the family in the aftermath of the fire.

"Nobody's hurt. That's the bottom line," Pavel said.

Karen Christman lives in an apartment a quarter-mile away. She smelled the smoke through her window about 11 a.m., and drove to the scene to see if the fire was at her grandmother's former house, three houses away from the Ficchis'.

"Oh God, this is horrible. And tomorrow's Christmas (Eve)," she said, as she watched the firefighters work.

More than 100 firefighters from five Lower Merion companies--Union Fire Association, Gladwyne, Penn Wynne, Narberth and Belmont Hills--battled the blaze, which so damaged the home's structural integrity that all firefighters were evacuated briefly about 1:15 p.m., McGarvey said.

Strong wind blew thick smoke in different directions, hampering visibility. Crews sawed off parts of a tree and a line of bushes to accommodate a larger truck pulled up to the side of the house.