Fire destroys Branch Township home.

By Rob Alway. Editor-in-Chief.

BRANCH TWP. — Fire destroyed a home Friday afternoon at 8375 E. Johnson Road. Initial dispatch information stated that a deck, attached to the house, was on fire. A few minutes later, the fire spread to the home, fully engulfing it.

Denny Oleniczak leaned against his pickup truck in his garage and watched firefighters extinguish the fire.

“I lost everything,” he said. “Everything I had was in that house.”

Next door neighbor Robert Dilliner said he was home when the fire started. He said that Oleniczak often smokes out on his deck and there were some leaves piled up on the deck, which is most likely what caused the fire.

“I tried using a garden hose to put out the fire, but just couldn’t get it out,” Dilliner said. “Denny wanted to keep going back in the house and get his things out. I told him that everything was replaceable but he wasn’t.”

Branch Township, Custer Township and Fountain Area fire departments were called to the scene.

While on the scene, Branch Fire Department was called to a woods fire, near Landon and Barothy roads, also in Branch Township; Carr Area Fire Department was also called to assist on that fire.

American Red Cross was called to the Johnson Road fire to offer assistance for Oleniczak, who did have home owner’s insurance.