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The address initially given for the residential fire was a neighboring home. However, Baker quickly realized it was his family members’ house as the firetruck approached. The structure was already fully engulfed upon their arrival.
Baker grabbed his equipment and began pouring water on the blaze, desperate to make his way inside and calling out to his son. His chief quickly realized whose house it was, and fellow firefighters escorted Baker back to the firehouse.
“There wasn’t nothing we could’ve done to get in there. We tried, but we couldn’t get in,” said Baker who’s been a fighting fires for 40 years.
His son, Dale Baker, 19, had followed both of his parents into the fire service, joining when he was 16.
“He said it all his life, he was just going to be like his dad,” Harold Baker said.
Heidi Knorr, the Nescopeck Volunteer Fire Company administrative assistant, called Dale Baker “such a fun-loving soul. He just loved life.”
The family was “always willing to help lend a hand to anyone in need,” Knorr declared. Dale’s mother was not among the dead listed by Harold Baker, the Clipper-Herald reported.
According to a preliminary investigation, the fire erupted on the front porch at around 2:30 a.m., Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said Friday evening.
“The information I have is that the fire started and progressed very quickly, making it very difficult to get out,” he said.
Three individuals were able to escape the inferno, Sanguedolce noted.
A fourteenth person staying at the home was away throwing newspapers when the fire erupted, according to Baker.
Four state police fire marshals are taking part in the investigation. It will not be classified as a criminal probe unless they determine the fire was intentionally set, he said.
Mike Swank lives down the street. He woke up after hearing a loud explosion. He looked outside and saw the porch “was really going.” He tried using a neighbor’s hose to keep the blaze from spreading to a garage, but the efforts were no contest for the inferno.
“I seen two guys outside and they were in various states of hysteria,” Swank told the AP.
Nescopeck is a small town on the Susquehanna River, about 20 miles southwest of Wilkes-Barre.
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