Home destroyed

DUNKIRK — Tears seeped from Marcus Ritenour’s eyes as he removed an item from around the neck of an angel statue and placed it lanyard-like around his neck.
He and his family could only stand and watch Tuesday afternoon as their home and most of what was inside were destroyed by fire, smoke and water. But they shared some hugs and tears when firefighters were able to recover his father’s military flag and the angel that held a small container of his mother’s ashes.
The home Ritenour, his wife, son and in-laws share at 320 N. Indiana St. in Dunkirk was in flames for about three and a half hours Tuesday afternoon, causing extensive damage that included a portion of the roof caving in.
None of the five — Ritenour, his wife, Summer, son Sean and in-laws Paul and Beth Freeman — who live in the house were injured in the fire, and two dogs were also evacuated. The family’s cat, “Pretty Girl,” was killed.
The family and neighbors were gathered about 3:30 p.m. in an empty grass lot on the south side of the home near North Street when a Dunkirk firefighter walked out of the front door of their home with a triangular wooden case that held the military flag. A few minutes later, the angel, which had sat on Ritenour’s mother’s casket at her funeral, was also pulled from the house.
Both brought a flood of emotion from friends and the family, which feared the items were lost.
Ritenour, who has rented the house from Marice Sisco for about three years, said no one was inside the home when the fire began in the kitchen.
“My son, my father-in-law and I was all standing out in the front yard talking to our friends that live across the street and my father-in-law heard the smoke alarm going off,” he said. “And I went in and grabbed my old fire helmet while he was turning the garden hose on. I went in the back part of the house and was spraying it.”
Ritenour, who also grabbed his wife’s 200-year-old family Bible, said he felt he and his father-in-law were doing a good job of keeping the fire somewhat under control with the garden hose, but eventually they had to give up.
“It was smoky and too black,” said Freeman. “We just couldn’t see nothin’, and the fire was so hot. … And with a garden hose I just couldn’t get enough pressure to get it pushed back.”
Ritenour and his father-in-law were critical of Dunkirk Fire Department, with Freeman saying he spent 10 to 15 minutes fighting the fire with the garden hose before he heard sirens. Ritenour said his neighbors told him it took about a half hour from the time 911 was called to when firefighters started spraying water on the house.
Jay County Sheriff’s Office’s dispatch log shows the incident was reported at 1:45 p.m., and Dunkirk firefighter Ferrell Wells said this morning that the first firefighters were on scene five minutes later.
Ritenour, who noted that he served as a full-time firefighter in Muncie for 20 years, said he plans to call the state fire marshal’s office today to complain about the response to the fire.
Fourteen Dunkirk firefighters responded to the scene with two trucks. Six Albany firefighters along with a ladder truck were also called to the scene, as were six firefighters from Eaton Fire Department.
Firefighters seemed to have the fire under control on several occasions, only to have flames again shoot out the rear, west-facing side of the house. Eventually flames burst from the top of the roof in the rear half of the home about 3:05 p.m., causing the roof to cave in.
Eaton fire chief Brian Copher directed water at the area from the Albany ladder truck extended high above the house while other firefighters sprayed from the ground.
Black and white smoke billowed from both the east and west sides throughout the afternoon.
The fire was out at 5:16 p.m., and Dunkirk firefighters returned to the station at 5:37 p.m.
The fire started in the kitchen area. The cause remains under investigation.