Garry Wagner spent Wednesday night trying to keep residents of western Lancaster County from driving into dangerous floodwaters.

He spent early Thursday morning trying to save his family from floodwaters pouring into their own home.

"When I came back to the house at 2:30 a.m., I just came back to check things out," says the fire police lieutenant with West Hempfield Fire & Rescue Company.

"I was going to turn around and go back out to help."

But a man who has spent most of his 49 years volunteering to help others quickly found that his priority was saving his family.

That he did, but he may have lost the house. Now a fund has been established to help a helping man.

Garry and Leslie Wagner and their daughter Kristin, a senior at Hempfield High School, live in a low-lying house at 688 S. Chiques Road, just across Chiques Creek from the Liederkranz, a private club in Rapho Township.

Swollen Wednesday by torrential downpours from its Manheim headwaters all the way down to the Wagners' house, the Chiques had become a raging river of silt, sand and sewage.

Garry left home about 5 p.m. to respond to a rescue call on the Susquehanna River at Columbia. Someone had gotten into trouble using a pontoon boat to haul a camping vehicle from an island to the mainland.

The rest of the night, Garry spent barricading flooded roads, checking the solidity of bridges, warning drivers to pull over, turn around, go home.

When he drove his own truck home  to check on things, he found that the normally knee-deep Chiques had risen several feet and was lapping at the front porch.

He went inside and saw water rising up the basement stairs.

"He said, 'The water's almost at the porch and we should go somewhere,' " recalls Leslie.

The first place they went was upstairs to wake their daughter.

As the family carried furniture to the second floor, water began rising into the first floor. So they grabbed some clothing and abandoned the building.

"We just ran out of time," Garry says. "We figure as quick as the water was coming up, another 15 minutes [and] we'd have had to have been rescued."

They moved Leslie's and Kristin's cars to higher ground, then drove the truck to the fire hall.

From the time Garry returned home to wake his sleeping family until they left in the truck, less than an hour had elapsed.

"The water rose a foot, foot and a half in the first 15 minutes," he recalls, "and then it began rising faster."

The water stopped just below the number "668" on their side door, perhaps 20 feet above the Chiques' normal level.

And then, for several hours, water coursed through the house, making a jumble of everything on the first floor and in the garage.

The flood rearranged the Wagner's kitchen, depositing a stool on top of the sink and chairs all over the room. A table covered with books, newspapers, bills and other correspondence rose with the water to the ceiling and fell again when the waters receded. Surprisingly, most of that paper remains dry.

But the floors are covered with mud, and everything else is soaked.

Above the kitchen door hangs a photo of a kitten barely holding onto a rope. The caption reads: "Lord Help Me Hang in There."

It's going to be tough, Garry admits.

"I don't know where I'm going to start," he laments as he surveys the scene from a high spot on his four acres of land. "My driveway is shot. The trees are down. My front yard is a beach of sand. The concrete porch has shifted, and I don't know how stable the house is."

The Wagners are not certain whether their flood insurance is current. They know their 30-year mortgage has 20 years to go. They fear they will lose their house and the land they have lived on and loved for the past decade.

Garry works full-time as warehouse foreman at Barry L. Nissly Co. in Lancaster. He also works part time for a security company.

Most of the rest of his time is spent volunteering with West Hempfield Fire & Rescue. Before joining that company two decades ago, he had volunteered with other emergency services since he was 14.

He's not asking for help, but he's getting it.

Garry's employer, Barry Nissly, has established a support fund.

Money can be sent to the Lt. Garry Wagner Fund, Hempfield United Methodist Church, 3050 Marietta Ave., Lancaster, PA 17601. Make checks payable to the church.

An anonymous donor has offered to match funds received.