Flames Destroy Backyard Deck, Menace Home, Alert Neighbors Save the Day

It was a close call for the Covaleski family.

An intense fire raced through their backyard deck, spewing out heavy black smoke smoke and intense heat that melted siding on their house, just a few feet away.

The family was away from their Lemont home at the time, but an eagle-eyed neighbor spotted the fire and helped save the day.

“I was downstairs watching the Pirates,” says Norm Brown who lives next door. “My wife yells down and says, ‘There’s a lot of smoke coming from the back.’ And all of the sudden she goes, ‘Oh, there’s flames!’”

Brown jumped into action and ran outside. “I took a look and that deck was completely engulfed,” he says. “I knocked on the door — no answer — so I just grabbed the garden hose and my wife called the fire company.”

That was just before 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Within minutes, firefighters from the Alpha Fire Company were on the scene at 315 Whitehill St.

Alpha fire chief Jeff Martin says a couple of lucky breaks kept the fire from causing even more damage. “Had the neighbor not been home — and the wind direction actually pushed the flames away from the house … had no one called this in there’s a good chance this would have been involved a little more than it is,” he says.

Centre Region Council of Governments Fire Director Steve Bair agrees the blaze could have easily been much worse. “That was not a fire to trifle with,” he adds.

The deck, which was made out of a plastic-based composite material, was destroyed along with some car tires.

“[The fire damaged] the siding on the garage and the room above the garage but we we checked the interior of the house and everything was good there,” says Martin.

Homeowner Tom Covaleski and his wife were on their way home from a birthday party when they got a call about the fire. They were still about 20 minutes away, making for a long drive. The couple arrived to find firefighters mopping up and only that minor damage to their home.

“Oh, we’re really lucky,” says Covaleski. “The house is fine. So, we’re lucky. There’s some siding to replace.”

Covaleski knew right away what had happened. “I have an outdoor fireplace and this morning I was doing work outside and I was burning a little bit of wood and when I left there were embers in the metal tray, but it’s, you know, it’s fire brick. We’ve had fire brick for two years and never had a problem.

“I was at the point where we would usually go to sleep for the night like when we had a fire out back. And the firemen think the wind swirled around, an ember came out and took it.”

One dog was in the garage so firefighters brought him outside as a precaution. Two other dogs were inside the house but apparently were not in any danger.

This fire reminded Martin of the fire that gutted a housing complex on Waupelani Drive nearly two years ago. That blaze was blamed on a charcoal grill that was left too close to a plastic railing.

“Long story short,” says Martin, “make sure your grill is out before you leave.”