Nov 3, 2015 3 min read

CRUCIBLE – One of the last vestiges of the former Crucible Ferry was destroyed Sunday afternoon when fire tore through the vacant “ferry house” in Crucible, the former home of the ferry’s owners.

Firefighters from the Crucible Volunteer Fire Co. were called at 2:12 p.m. to the two-story, wood-frame house on Old Ferry Road.

“It was pretty well gone when we got there,” Crucible fire Chief Jeff Blackburn said. Fire had burned through the first two floors of the house, he said, and “it was starting to go up through the attic.”

The building was too unsafe to send anyone inside to try to fight the blaze, Blackburn said.

“There were holes in the floor. It was very unsafe, and I wasn’t going put lives in danger,” he said.

The house, which has been vacant for the last seven or eight years, was once owned by the family that operated the ferry, Blackburn said. The last family member known to live there was Margaret Mitchell, who died April 19 at Rolling Meadows Nursing Home at age 104. She had moved from her Crucible home about five years earlier.

Mitchell was reported to have inherited the ferry after her aunt died in 1952. She operated the ferry until the mid-1970s.

The property is now owned by a Rita and Robert McMillan, Cumberland Township police Chief Craig Miller said. The McMillans, who apparently live nearby, could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

“It was just plain … But being the old ferry house, it would be a landmark for Crucible,” Blackburn said.

The Crucible fire company was on the scene for four or five hours and was assisted by the Rices Landing and Carmichaels-Cumberland Township.

Miller said the fire is being investigated as arson. Electric utilities had been disconnected to the house earlier, he said. The cause will be determined by the state police fire marshal.

Miller said the fire had been reported to a firefighter by a woman who had been walking or driving by and who noticed smoke. Miller said police would like the woman to contact them so they can follow up on what she might have seen.

Cumberland Township police also are investigating as suspected arson a fire about 7:40 p.m. Sunday in a duplex at 261-262 Grant St., Nemacolin.

The fire displaced a couple, Elizabeth Ruffner and Robert Park, and two juveniles who were living in half the duplex. The Red Cross assisted the family with lodging.

Miller said the fire started in the vacant half of the duplex. Electric utilities to that side of the building also had been disconnected, he said.

The Nemacolin and Carmichaels-Cumberland Township fire companies responded to the fire. The companies were called out twice early Monday when the fire rekindled, Miller said.