Firefighters check the ruins of a home at 37 Wythe Circle in Manheim Township early Saturday morning.
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Charred vehicles sit in the driveway of the home at 37 Wythe Circle.
Only the foundation of the home at 37 Wythe Circle, a chimney and burnt rubble remained after the blaz
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In this photo taken by a neighbor, the home at 37 Wythe Circle burns early Saturday morning.
Gail Smith, 47, walks away from the remains of the home where her mother died in an early-morning fire
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An early morning blaze destroyed a Manheim Township home and left one person dead Saturday.
Police and firefighters were called to the two-alarm fire at 37 Wythe Circle at 1:21 a.m. after authorities received multiple calls reporting a house fire. Fire personnel arrived within seven minutes and were still on the scene late Saturday morning.
The victim was 67-year-old Cynthia Glassman, according to her daughter, Gail Smith, age 47, of the 600 block of Plum Street.
Glassman's son, Hayden Smith, also lived in the home, but was not there at the time of the fire, his sister said.
Hayden Smith called his sister early Saturday morning from the Manheim Township Police Department, Gail Smith said.
"He said to brace myself, and I thought he might have been in jail or something," Gail Smith said. "He said Mom was in a fire, and my throat just closed up and I couldn't talk."
One neighbor reported hearing "a couple of pops" around 1:15 or 1:30 a.m.
Another neighbor, Fran Gross, said her 19-year old son did not observe the fire when he came home around 11:30 p.m. But almost two hours later, he woke her up to say the home was in flames, she said.
Police were already on the scene, but engines had not yet arrived she said.
Units from Neffsville, East Petersburg, Southern Manheim Township, Eden, Manheim and Mountville responded, along with LEMSA EMS, Warwick EMS and Manheim Township police.
"It was terrifying to see the entire house engulfed in flames," Gross said. "The house was actually starting to fall in."
Others said a neighbor, Billy Baldwin, ran from house to house pounding on doors to evacuate homes.
Baldwin declined to speak with press Saturday morning.
Neffsville Fire Chief Mike Elliott said the fire was under control by 2:30 a.m. It was several more hours before pockets of embers were extinguished, he said.
Of the 2½ story home, only burnt rubble, ashes, basement walls and a chimney remained after the fire was extinguished. The driveway and remains of a vehicle marked where a garage once stood. The chimney was razed by authorities around 10 a.m.
A burnt odor still pervaded the crisp breeze as Smith looked over the charred, mangled rubble that remained late Saturday morning.
"The New York Trade Center comes to my heart," she said, fighting tears. "I can feel what the families feel knowing [loved ones] were in the flames and could not escape."
State Police fire marshals are investigating, and have not determined if the fire was suspicious, or what caused it.
Neffsville Fire Department spokesman Rick Kane confirmed one death. The body was discovered in the basement, he said. Authorities did not know if the victim was in the basement at the time of the fire, or a result of the home's collapse.
The first call came from a neighbor one block away, Kane said.
"It is very unusual for a fire of that size to go unnoticed," he said.
A neighboring home received damage to shutters above the garage.
The other neighboring home was not damaged.
Two cars were destroyed. One was parked in the driveway, and the other was in the garage, which was reduced to rubble.
Gail Smith said she lived in the home until last March. She still kept her two dogs there, and they are unaccounted for.
"I think that my puppies are gone, too," said Gail Smith. She plans to contact the Humane League in hope that someone has turned them in.
One is a Bichon, named Buffy. The other is a black miniature poodle, named Benny. Both dogs answer to their names.
Glassman was a retired elementary school teacher. She had Parkinson's disease, used a walker with difficulty, and would not have been able to escape the blaze quickly, her daughter said.
Neighbor Susan Roller recently noticed that Meals On Wheels was visiting the home, and had arranged to bring Glassman a meal Sunday.
"For some reason, the Lord took her out of her misery, but to die in some tragedy I can't understand," said Gail Smith.
"I'm trying to hold on to God's unchanging hand ...," she said. "... The tears will come later, but I'll never blame God."
Contact Jeannette Scott at jscott@lnpnews.com.
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