Fire destroyed a storage building in Paradise Township early Friday, but firefighters saved a nearby house, an official said.

The blaze broke out shortly before 3 a.m. at Dean and Diane Krout's two-story garage/storage building at 23 Cherry Hill Road, Paradise Fire Company Chief Pat Cosgrove said.

A neighbor heard the fire and called 911.

"It was fully involved when I got there," the chief said. "Flames were through the roof and garage doors."

The burning 900-square-foot building was just 15 feet from a house, Cosgrove said.

The house is rented by Javier and Jaqueline Bendana, said Trooper James DeWalt, a state police fire marshal.

They were sleeping but got out safely on their own just after firefighters arrived, Cosgrove said.

Firefighters concentrated on saving the house by preventing embers from spreading to it.

"Basically, the (garage) was a total loss, so we put hoses on the house so we didn't lose a house," Cosgrove said.

He credited the calm weather with helping firefighter efforts.

"If it was Thursday, we could have lost a lot more property," he said. "No wind (Friday) helped."

Firefighters largely extinguished the fire just before 4 a.m. but stayed until about 7:30 a.m. checking for hot spots, Cosgrove said.

Some 75 firefighters from Paradise, Kinzer, Gordonville, Bart, Ronks, Strasburg and Intercourse fire companies fought the blaze.

The cause of the fire was undetermined Friday, DeWalt said. He found nothing suspicious about it.

DeWalt estimated damage at $50,000 to the garage and another $25,000 to its contents, mainly lumber and an old car.

Cosgrove added that siding on one side of the house melted from the blaze's intense heat, causing minor damage.
rrobinson@lnpnews.com