A faulty heater in the basement of an Ogontz rowhouse yesterday caused a predawn fire that spread to six other houses before firefighters were able to contain it, authorities said.
There were no injuries in the three-alarm blaze, reported at 5:24 a.m., that left more than a dozen residents of the 1700 block of Church Lane temporarily homeless.
``It's a tragedy at this time of year,'' said Fire Commissioner Harold B. Hairston after the blaze was declared under control at 6:47 a.m.
According to Hairston, the blaze erupted in a basement heater of a house at 1736 Church Lane owned by June Bishop, 65, who escaped out the front door. The fire quickly engulfed her residence and then jumped along the two-story rooftops to adjoining homes, where it was mostly confined to the roofs and upper floors.
Damaged were 1738 Church Lane on the west side of the Bishop home and houses at 1734, 1732, 1730, 1728 and 1726 Church Lane on the east side.
An investigation by the Fire Marshal's Office revealed that the fire was caused by faulty furnace repair at 1736 and ``probably could have been prevented,'' said Hairston.
A fuel line carrying oil to the furnace burner was found to be leaking, Hairston said. The connection on the line ``wasn't even turned hand-tight and probably was spilling oil for awhile,'' said Hairston.
``The oil managed to get heated, and that was what caused the ignition.''
According to the commissioner, the homes were built before fire codes required firestops between row dwellings. That facilitated the spread of the fire. Current codes require firestops ``all the way up'' to the roof, he said.
Yesterday afternoon, the 1700 block of Church Lane was noisy with the sounds of hammers as workmen boarded up windows and insurance adjustors went door to door, inspecting the damaged houses.
Helen Johnson, 60, said she and her husband, Marvin, 67, were asleep in their front bedroom at 1732 Church Lane when the fire began. ``When I awakened, I saw the flashes of the fire trucks,'' she said.
The couple rounded up their black Labrador retriever, named Nubian, went outside, and saw smoke billowing out of Bishop's front bedroom.
``It was just smoke and then all of a sudden about an hour later there was the blaze,'' said Johnson, who was critical of the firefighters' efforts to extinguish the fire.
As she watched the flames inch closer to her home, Johnson said she wondered why hoses were only being trained on the rooftops from the rear and not the Church Lane side. ``So, I went up to a fireman and said, `Why don't you put some water on it?' He just looked at me and told me to step back - that I was too close to the house that was burning,'' said Johnson.
Johnson said she never expected the flames to reach her residence. She even left her cat, Frisky, in the basement.
``Why would it get to my house? It was two doors away,'' she said.
``As long as the fire blazed on those roofs there was no water coming from the front of the houses,'' she said. When the couple later returned, they found the cat safe.
