Fire Damage

Fires caused about $342,000 in property losses in Lower Merion last year, the lowest figure in the 20 years that such records have been kept, township fire officials have reported. Township officials have said 1990 was a banner year for the volunteer fire companies, with the number of fire calls down by 9 percent and the number of building blazes down by 5 percent. "We think that our fire prevention program has a lot to do with it," Fire Chief Harry Knorr said this week. But "we're not discounting the fact that we were very fortunate.

John Babin didn't know the extent of the blaze, so he thought his leather jacket had a chance. Then he saw the charred gap yesterday where the dry cleaner's shop had stood three days earlier. "Oh, boy," said Babin, who had hoped to pick up about $600 worth of clothing - including his jacket and his wife's hat - from Main Line Clothing Care. "I didn't know the whole place burned down," said Babin, 78, of Sharon Hill, as he leafed through his receipts. Along with Babin, store patrons and owners were coming to grips with the massive fire that destroyed at least two businesses Wednesday night in a Montgomery Avenue shopping center informally known as the Starbucks center.

Creating an eerie silhouette, a firefighter uses his ax to ventilate the roof of a house that burned Monday night in Brandamore. The fire, which began in the garage, caused $120,000 to Dominick Guisippe's house, said Chip Patton, chief of the Martin's Corner Fire Company. The fire damage was limited to the garage and kitchen, but smoke and heat damaged the rest of the house. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Two fires in East Pikeland Township within the last week extensively damaged a small apartment complex and scarred the historical Kimberton Country House restaurant. The worse of the two blazes caused an estimated $225,000 in damage Friday night to a two-story combination garage and apartment building in the 900 block of Township Line Road, said Robert Dobson, chief of the Kimberton Fire Company. The Kimberton company responded to the fire at 7:19 p.m. Friday, along with Liberty Fire Company of Spring City, Lionville Fire Company and the three volunteer fire companies in Phoenixville.

An intensive two-month effort to repair extensive fire damage at St. Peter Celestine Roman Catholic Church in Cherry Hill will culminate Saturday when the church holds its first Mass there since the Christmas holiday season. Fire broke out at the church at 402 Kings Highway in the predawn hours of Christmas Eve. Since then, its 4,000 parishioners have attended Mass in the auditorium of Cherry Hill High School West. But because of sustained efforts by contractors and volunteers, the church is just three days away from reopening.

Fire officials are investigating a blaze that leveled most of the Buckingham Racquet Club early last week, causing about $100,000 in damage. No injuries were reported. It was determined that the fire was not suspicious and that it started in the kitchen. However, what set the spark is still unknown, said Gary Cosner, chief of the Midway Fire Company. The club, which has only outside tennis courts, is owned by its 168 bond-holders, said Paul Freud, club president. The club will be rebuilt, he said.

One hundred years ago, the small inn here housed the drovers and stagecoach travelers in need of a hot meal and a warm bed while traversing the commerce-heavy Strasburg Road. Following a January fire that destroyed the roof of the Marshalton Inn, the hope is to make the roofless building look exactly as it did a century ago. The four owners of the restaurant have retained John Milner Architects Inc. of Chadds Ford to do just that. Milner hopes to recreate the destroyed roof and ceiling as historically correctly as possible, down to the authentic wood-shingle roof, which caught fire after a burning paper ember floated from the chimney, landed, and ignited the shingles.

Workers are struggling to repair fire damage at Philadelphia's sludge treatment plant to prevent hundreds of thousands of gallons of half-treated sewage from gushing into the Delaware River. The Water Department said yesterday it could store millions of gallons of sludge temporarily in tanks and barges - but that this storage capacity would be exhausted within about two days. After that, sludge could begin fouling the treatment facilities at city sewage plants that pipe cleaned-up wastewater into the Delaware River.

Get used to it. The traffic hell created by last Wednesday's eight-alarm tire fire under Interstate 95 in Port Richmond will ease only slightly when PennDOT partially reopens the damaged roadway later this week - probably Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. The new plan is more like purgatory. It calls for a two-lane bottleneck in each direction at the construction zone while crews permanently replace the charred overpass - and that could mean traffic nightmares in Philadelphia for the next six months.

Unscathed by flames, Dracula's Castle towered above the twisted, still- smoldering wreckage of a fire that devastated 15 businesses on Nickel's Midway Pier on Wildwood's famed boardwalk and along Cedar Avenue Thursday night. A single hose yesterday continued to squirt water on smoldering debris as investigators began searching for a cause to the blaze. Half the pier, including the arcade, went up in flames, with officials estimating damage at more than $2 million. Many of the kiddie rides survived intact, along with the haunted castle, which sprawls across and looms over one end of the pier.

A fire caused by an old stovepipe damaged a popular New Hope bakery Saturday morning, fire officials said. Bakers at C'est La Vie, off South Main Street, were working when the fire broke out about 6 a.m., said Tom Markey, chief of the New Hope Eagle Volunteer Fire Company. No one was injured, and the fire was contained to the building's first floor, which houses the bakery and the owners' living quarters, Markey said. The bakery "will be closed for a few days," the chief said. Damage was estimated at $10,000.

SANDAKAN, Malaysia - Smiling passengers voiced relief and gratitude after safely leaving a fire-damaged luxury cruise ship that was stranded at sea for 24 hours and limped without air-conditioning into a Malaysian port Sunday. The Azamara Quest drifted off the southern Philippines with 1,000 people aboard after flames engulfed one of its engine rooms Friday, injuring five crew members. It restored propulsion the next night and reached the harbor of Sandakan city in Malaysia's eastern state of Sabah on Borneo island late Sunday.

A fire burned this morning through the original classroom building on the grounds of the all-girl Villa Joseph Marie High School in Bucks County. No injuries were reported in the fire in the three-story building known as Maria Hall. Arriving firefighters found smoke and flames on the ground floor, but despite their efforts the fire spread to the top two stories. The fire was declared under control about 11:45 a.m., more than two hours after it was reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

A building at a Catholic shrine in Bucks County was damaged by fire Wednesday night, fire officials said. The fire was reported at 7:27 p.m. at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa at 654 Ferry Rd. in Doylestown. The roof of a chapel sustained heavy fire damage. The main church building was unaffected. - Robert Moran

A historic Montgomery County church was heavily damaged by fire early Saturday morning. Fire companies were called to Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hatfield Borough just after 1:30 a.m. and found smoke coming from a building in the two-structure complex, according to Capt. Andrew Monaghan of the Hatfield Volunteer Fire Company. The building dates to 1904 and now is used as a church-run daycare, Monaghan said. Five area companies were on the scene until about 7 a.m. The blaze is under investigation, Monaghan said.

Firefighters were battling a three-alarm blaze at the Animal Kingdom, a zoo in Bordentown. Firefighters responded to a call at Animal Kingdom about 8:40 p.m. A building that houses puppies and other domestic animals was reported to be on fire. No exotic animals or endangered species were kept in the building, police said. The animals were evacuated. The zoo houses animals including monkeys, camels, and giraffes, according to its website. A veterinarian was later called to the scene.

A blaze engulfed a house and damaged several neighboring properties Monday night on Roosevelt Boulevard in the city's Olney section, fire officials said. The fire was reported shortly after 8 p.m. in the 400 block of West Roosevelt Boulevard. By the time firefighters had arrived, the fire spread to the porches of neighboring homes. At 8:44 p.m., the fire was declared under control. No injuries were reported. The cause is under investigation.    -Robert Moran

A fire that broke out shortly after 6:30 Saturday morning in a house on Maher Lane in Upper Makefield Township, Bucks County, took firefighters about an hour to bring under control and caused extensive damage to the home, fire officials reported. Greg Jakubowski, chief of the Lingohocken Fire Company, said there were no injuries, but fire casued extensive damage to the house. Firefighters from four separate companies fought the blaze, rotating in and out of action because of the hot weather, he added.

Fire marshals are investigating the cause of fire that damaged an apartment in a waterfront building, officials said. No one was injured in the blaze in the second floor apartment at 7 N. Columbus Blvd., a building that was Municipal Pier 5 in an earlier life. The fire was reported at 5:32 a.m. and declared under control 24 minutes later. Other residents were allowed to return to their apartments after the fire.   Contact the Online Breaking News Desk at online@phillynews.com or 215-854-2443.