By Carlos Sadovi
Courier Times
csadovi@calkinsnewspapers.com
Orange flames, stretching more than 20 feet into the air, burst through the garage windows as putrid-smelling smoke flowed from a Smoketree Road home in Middletown. Robert Brennan and Richard Horner, each roused from their sleep about 1 a.m. Friday by the fire's glow, watched in horror as the blaze spread from the garage into their neighbor's home.
They knew Albert Taylor, 34, an amputee who needs a wheelchair, his 9-year-old son Timothy and Albert's 62-year-old mother Rosemary Downes were probably still asleep inside. "The whole garage was completely in flames, the flames were eating across the house," Brennan said. "It was moving so fast through the house it was stunning."
Albert Taylor, burned in the blaze, was admitted to the hospital where he remains in good condition. His son and mother were treated for smoke inhalation and released. But the fire destroyed the family's home and car."All lives got saved and that's what counts," Horner said.
On Taylor's front lawn, Horner and Brennan heard the family's two dogs barking from the garage. Then they heard the pop of small explosions in the garage where they knew Downes's 1989 Cadillac was parked along with propane tanks. "I thought that Cadillac was going to blow up," Brennan said.
Horner, still clutching the cordless telephone he used to dial 911, smashed through the windows of the yellow split-level "Country Clubber" home. The two men yelled and tried to wake the family. "It went from the garage, to the kitchen to the bedrooms like that," Horner said, snapping his fingers together. "The whole front of the house was orange."
As they broke the glass, smoke and heat billowed from the home almost pushing them away. By that point, the fire had spread through most of the house. Then they saw Downes in a robe walking through a hallway toward the garage."She was disoriented, she was walking right back into the flames, going into the garage," Brennan said, adding they led her to safety. "She just kept saying, `Get Al, get Al.' I realized it was Albert," Brennan said.
Remembering that Albert, who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident about five years ago, was still inside, the men raced back to the house and straddled the doorway. "The smoke was putrid, I took one breath and it was choking me," Brennan said. "You could only see five or six inches, but I could hear him."
Brennan and Horner saw Taylor moved toward the door. Taylor had his walker in his hand, but it kept getting caught in the hallway rug. Then Brennan saw Taylor fall. Taylor screamed for his wheelchair, but the men couldn't find it. Brennan tried dragging Taylor, who he described as too heavy to carry, from the home. He made it two feet away from the front door.
"You think adrenaline kicks in and you get this superhuman strength, but I was pulling and pulling and nothing happened," Brennan said. Finally Brennan, Horner and Middletown Township Patrolman Dale Keddie Jr., dragged Albert to the middle of his lawn. From there, Albert crawled to the street.
As Albert Taylor was being dragged, he called for his dogs."I heard the dogs the whole time. When the dogs stopped barking I told him, ' the dogs are gone Albert'," Horner said. "The dogs made it out but I didn't know it then. My assumption was they were dead."
Both dogs escaped, one returned about an hour after the fire started while the other showed up several hours later, said Terance Taylor, Albert's brother. Timothy Taylor, his son, escaped on his own. But his father was admitted to St. Mary Medical Center with first- and second-degree burns. Timothy was treated for smoke inhalation and released from St. Mary's. Downes was treated and released from Delaware Valley Medical Center.
While officials are investigating the cause, the fire doesn't seem suspicious at this point, said Robert Buzby, Middletown's fire marshal. He believes the blaze ignited near some mulch outside of the garage. Firefighters from William Penn, Penndel, Newportville and Langhorne-Middletown battled the blaze from about 1 a.m. to 3:30 a.m.
Friday, Terance Taylor returned to the charred rubble to salvage what he could from the Levittown home where he grew up. The burned-out shell of the Cadillac sat on its rims in the garage. Most of the outside walls had peeled away like burned confetti. Terance packed up items for his mother who is staying in her daughter's Bensalem home.
Until family members decide what to do, they will live with relatives. Yesterday, a crew boarded up the Taylor home.
"I don't want her here, she's going to go into shock," said Terance Taylor of Fairless Hills. "She always wanted one of these. She worked her butt off trying to get one of these."
As he picked though the rubble and held one of the dogs, neighbors expressed their sympathy. In return, Terance praised his brother's neighbors. Brennan and Albert Taylor have known each other since elementary school."What saved them was the neighbors; we've got a few good people on this street," he said.
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