Flames decimate Connerton home, one of last in village

CONNERTON – You wouldn’t know it today as you drove between Lost Creek and Girardville that you were passing through another once-thriving village — Connerton. Wednesday, one of the last remaining homes there burned.

Firefighters from across northern Schuylkill County and southern Northumberland County were called to 9 Connerton Road around 2pm for a reported house fire.

The single home there was engulfed in flames when the first crews arrived, and smoke could be seen as far as Shenandoah and Lavelle.

Fire Chief Frank Zangari said the home was occupied and that no one was injured in the firefight as of 3pm.

The home collapsed about half an hour into the blaze.

Crews from Girardville, Shenandoah, Mahanoy City, Ashland, Englewood, William Penn, Mount Carmel, and more responded.

Route 54 was closed from the Reading Anthracite breaker to Girardville during the firefight, which was still active as of 3:30pm.

A State Police fire marshal was called to the scene to investigate.

Connerton was once a thriving community, much like other nearby patch towns. In the mid 20th century, as mines closed and the mine pool rose, homes began experiencing flooding in their basement.

The relief offered by the government was a buyout, which all-but wiped the community off the map save for about four homes left today.

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