News Reports

FIRE IN DRYER DESTROYS HOME
Sayreville couple escapes but dog dies

By RICK HARRISON
STAFF WRITER

SAYREVILLE — A 61-year-old Parlin woman suffered burns and her family dog was killed in a fire that destroyed a Kendall Drive home yesterday.Suzanne Janco opened a gas-fed dryer in the 91 Kendall Drive. home to retrieve some sheets when a flame shot out, singeing her eyebrows, eyelashes and hair, said her husband, 65-year-old Paul Janco.

She was taken to JFK Medical Center in Edison, where she was treated for second-degree burns on her wrists and hands and then released, a relative said.
Paul Janco, Suzanne's husband, was also at home when the fire broke out.

"I saw smoke and flames run right up the wall," said Paul Janco. "I couldn't believe how fast it spread."

Paul Janco attempted to fight the fire.

"I was in the dining room with a garden hose," Janco said afterward, clutching four charred, partially melted pill bottles. "It didn't do anything."
Neighbors called 911 and tried to douse the flames with garden hoses stretched across backyards.

The carport with the laundry room was engulfed in flames when the first police cars arrived at 10:45 a.m., sending smoke well above the tree line, according to responding Officer Scott Poetsch. The heat broke out two front windows, he said. The vinyl siding of 93 Kendall Drive — unoccupied and up for sale — rippled and tore away from the structure.

"I heard somebody scream, screaming, screaming," said Mary Kelly, who lives two houses away at 95 Kendall Drive. "I thought somebody was getting beat up unmercifully."

But, Kelly said, Suzanne Janco was screaming for her dog while police held her back from the burning house.

"We called to the windows and doors, but there was too much smoke, and we weren't going in," said Sayreville police Sgt. Jack Fitzsimmons, the first officer to arrive.

Janco continued to scream.

"She was very excited," Fitzsimmons said. "I was very worried about her. Not so much her health, but her state of mind."

Suzanne Janco suffered second-degree burns on her wrists and hands, according to her sister, Lucille Fiedeldey of Morganville.

The Sayreville Fire Department arrived shortly after the police, eventually amassing six units and about 35 firefighters in addition to engines from South Amboy and Madison Park. According to Sayreville Fire Chief Stamatis Bratsano, firefighters knocked down the fire in about 10 minutes before it re-ignited through the attic. Stamatis said firefighters working a hose through a side window brought the fire under control again.

Ray Skarzynski, a 68-year-old member of the Sayreville Emergency Squad, tried to resuscitate the Jancos' 14-year-old black-and-white terrier, Annie.

"It didn't look like too much we could hope for," Skarzynski said. "But we try, if only for the sake of the owner."

Skarzynski said the team worked for about five minutes, applying an oxygen mask and performing chest compressions. But the dog died.

Bratsano said the fire inspector suspected the blaze began in the dryer, which was filled with lint and surrounded by aerosol cans that could have served as accelerants.

Fiedeldey said she was worried about the smoke because her sister developed blood clots last year that traveled to her lungs and gave her trouble breathing.

"She was just starting to feel good," Fiedeldey said.

And now almost all of their possessions are burned and their plans are up in the air.

"They were looking forward to retiring," Fiedeldey said, "but they weren't thinking they'd have to start all over."

Paul Janco, shaken and sipping on a diet Pepsi delivered by a neighbor, counted at least one of his blessings. He was relieved his wife wasn't left home alone.

"I called in sick this morning," he said. "Thank God I did."