Penfield Volunteers were called out on Friday July 12th at 9:12AM for the report of  a commercial style lawn mower on fire in the garage of a home on Jomanda Way.  From what we understand while the home owner was refueling the lawn mower disaster struck as the gasoline fumes ignited causing a flash fire.  Gasoline then spilled on the floor and the fire began to consume the garage.  The home owner proceeded to get everybody out of the home and then called 911.  After being dispatched Engine Company 374 from Station 3 down the street  arrived and began deploying lines to a deep seated fire.  The Tower Truck 371 was next to arrive deploying more manpower grabbing more hand lines off the engine and raced into the structure.  At the time there were three hose lines trying to contain the fire to the garage, two of them being inside, one of them being outside.  Despite the efforts of the firefighters the fire was able to spread fire up the outside of the home and gain access to the attic via the eves and over hangs.  Once the fire was in the attic it had access to both ends of the house as there were no fire stops above the ceilings.  Firefighters tried to cut off the horizontal spread of the flames by cutting ventilation holes in the roof  but it was to late.   As the roof weakened and began to collapse crews were pulled out for there safety.  Firefighters would continue a defensive attack till the fire was out.  Towards the end crews were allowed inside to get a few personal items out for the homeowner as the house is a total loss.
Firefighters were out for 5 hours on scene and another 3 hours cleaning up at the fire station.

Firefighters were called back around 6PM for hot spots, and then again the next day to pump out the basement so the home owner could recover more items.







On a sad note this is the second time this particular home has caught fire and been declared a total loss. On September 24th, 1994 at 2AM  (just before Country Days) while under construction the same house caught fire due to spontaneous combustion of a pile of wet saw dust.  Because nobody lived in the home and the neighborhood was virtually empty the fire was able to rage out of control for quite a while before it was reported.   That house was also a total loss.