AMHERST TWP. — Danny Metelsky was heading to his Amherst home after drama class at Elyria Catholic High School late Tuesday when he spotted an orange glow out of the corner of his eye.

Danny Metelsky and Annette Grobe

 He glanced over and saw a tongue of fire creeping up the side of a house at Grobe Fruit Farm on state Route 113.

The 16-year-old said he pulled to the side of the road and ran to the home, knocking on the door for all he was worth.

“We were inside watching ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ ” said 69-year-old Annette Grobe, patting the heads of her young grandsons. “We didn’t smell anything and we don’t have a smoke detector out on the porch, so we didn’t know anything was wrong.”

With Danny’s warning, Grobe marched her daughter and grandchildren outside. She said firefighters from all over the area swarmed to her aid within minutes and had the blaze squelched before it moved inside her 150-year-old home.

It could have been much, much worse, Grobe said.

She has lived in the house for 43 years and remembers clearly how two of the family’s barns burned in separate fires in 1983. Grobe said the threat of that happening again is very real because the orchard’s storage barns and cider mill are packed so closely together.

South Amherst firefighters couldn’t say exactly how extensive the damage was — only that it was superficial. Grobe said she thinks faulty electrical wires may be to blame.

While fire crews sprayed down the side of her house, she patted Danny’s arm and beamed at him.

Danny put in a quick call to his parents to let them know he was OK, then explained how he’s learned to keep his eyes peeled for danger since last spring.

“My friend’s home burned down last year about the same time. I didn’t want that to happen to somebody else,” he said.

Contact Jason Hawk at 329-7148 or jhawk@chroniclet.com.

 

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