One person died in a home fire Wednesday morning in Exeter Township.
The fire in the 1200 block of Dauphin Place, off Chapel Hill Road, was reported by a neighbor shortly before 7 a.m., Exeter Township Fire Department Deputy Chief Matt Eshenaur said.
The first crew on scene put a hose line in service within seconds of arriving and mounted an interior attack, he said. They were able to contain the fire to one end of the small single-story house.
STEVEN HENSHAW – READING EAGLE)
Fire officers and Berks County deputy coroners prepare to remove the body of a fire victim from a home in the 1200 block of Dauphin Place in Exeter Township after a fire Wednesday morning. (STEVEN HENSHAW – READING EAGLE)
Firefighters found the victim inside the house. Firefighters quickly put out the rest of the flames and called for the Berks County coroner’s office.
Crews from Birdsboro Union Fire Department and the Monarch, Amity, Keystone of Boyertown and Mount Penn fire companies also responded.
Deputy coroners removed the body shortly after 9 a.m.
Investigators with the state police Troop L fire marshal’s unit were on the scene beginning an investigation into the cause of the fire.
The home is believed to have been occupied by one resident.
The neighborhood where the fire occurred consists of dozens of premanufactured houses that were built as rental homes in the 1960s, but many are owner-occupied, according to a resident. He said the small homes were built on a slab and colloquially referred to as the “Peiffer Homes.”
The land was owned by Donald Peiffer and Harold Hart, who also owned Buddies Nursery, a fixture along Route 422 for decades before it closed in 2015.