Adam Dietz

The Wyalusing Firemen's Carnival annual festivities begin tonight, between 5 and 6 p.m., on the grounds of the Wyalusing Borough Park, according to the report given by Wyalusing Fire Department President Adam Dietz.

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The five-day event, beginning Tuesday evening, and ending on Saturday, includes numerous fun-filled activities, such as a parade on Wednesday; fireworks after dark on Friday; and a car show, and a kiddie matinee on Saturday, according to Dietz.

"There will be a chicken barbecue every night," said Dietz.There would be all sorts of carnival foods, such as fries, burgers, sausage and "everything," said Dietz.

Numerous games, such as speed pitch, dime pitch, money wheels and bingo will be there as well, according to Dietz.

Rides will be provided by Nonweiler Amusements, he said, adding that there would also be live entertainment every night at the bandstand.

"Every night we will be displaying our brand new rescue pumper," said Dietz.

The proceeds from the event will go toward the financing of the new truck purchased in February, for equipment and for the general operation of the fire department, he said.

Wyalusing Assistant Fire Chief Adam Dietz said his concern is that those who are currently on the ambulance crew are going to respond to a scene where, for example, a child is choking, and then "there is no way they can, if it was a critical patient, that they can take off at that point."

Adam Dietz, assistant fire chief of the Wyalusing Fire Department, said fellow hunters traveling with the man who fell in Terry Township had tried to pull the man out of the woods on their own by putting him on a roller used to carry deer. The men called for help after they could no longer pull the injured hunter any farther.The man, whose identity Dietz could not confirm, was transported by the Wyalusing Ambulance to Memorial Hospital.Dietz said the hunter seemed to be in good spirits by the time members of the fire department arrived. "He said he was sorry for having taken us all away from our hunting," Dietz said.Memorial EMS also responded to the scene in Terry Township.About 900,000 hunters turned out for the opening day of the season, a number consistent with past years, according to Game Commission officials.It isn't clear, yet, how many of those hunters were in our area on the first day, but judging from figures from previous years, a good percentage of the estimated opening-day hunters were most likely roaming the hills of Bradford and Sullivan counties. Many of those opening-day hunters were taking home trophies that warranted being mounted on a wall over the fireplace.

The day after the fire, Wyalusing Fire Chief Adam Dietz reported that fire fighters on scene originally thought someone was inside the home while it was burning and spent a great deal of time checking around the area to make sure no one was inside.

According to Wyalusing Fire Chief Adam Dietz, the home, whose owner he is not definite of, was already fully engulfed by the time firefighters arrived on scene.Dietz said he knew little about the people who lived in the home, except that their names were Vanderpool.The fire was discovered and reported by a neighbor passing by on his way home from work, Dietz said.He added that the neighbor said he could see the fire from Route 706.Dietz said firefighters from Wyalusing Volunteer Fire Department reported that when they arrived on scene the house was already burned almost to the basement of the structure.Dietz said the first concern of firefighters shortly after arriving on scene was whether or not anyone was inside the structure because someone in the department said he believed at one time an older couple had lived there.Dietz said a neighbor told firefighters that a man and his son had been living in the house, but had been evicted and the man was living up the road.The neighbor said the son was living with him (the neighbor), but was not there that night.The neighbor was concerned the son could be in the house, but also said he had been staying with someone else as well."We thought we were going to be searching for two bodies, then it went from two to one," Dietz said.Dietz said a member of the fire department drove to the other house, pounded on the door about 2:30 a.m. and made sure the son was at the home, which he was.Dietz added that even if someone had been in the home, by the time firefighters arrived on scene the house was destroyed so much that no one would have been brought out alive.While the house was reportedly abandoned, Dietz said there were footprints in the snow leading to the home.About 30 firefighters from Wyalusing, Laceyville and LeRaysville were on scene until about 3:30 a.m., but Dietz said most of the time was spent trying to get water from a pond then trying to get the water through the lines because of the cold weather.Dietz said a firefighter from Laceyville dug through about 18 inches of ice to draw water from the pond to put on the fire, but that the home was already destroyed.There were also some problems with frozen lines and frozen water in other areas, Dietz said."The cold definitely hampered us," he said."It just froze everything solid."Dietz said there were no injuries in the fire.He does not know if the owner had insurance, and the cause of the fire is still under investigation by the Pennsylvania State Police.Further information about the cause of the fire was not available Wednesday.

©Daily and Sunday Review 2003

Wyalusing Volunteer Fire Company President Adam Dietz, who was at the search scene Wednesday afternoon, said four teams of divers had arrived at the scene and were set to begin another search about 1 p.m. "They marked off a portion of the river with buoys where they planned to focus their search," Dietz said. The search was being conducted just downstream from Blow's cottage, he added.

Along with dive teams from Tunkhannock and the Greater Valley who were on the scene previously, two additional teams-from the Luzerne County Sheriff's Department and Jessup-joined the search Wednesday afternoon.

In addition to the dive teams, Dietz said boats were provided by Wysox, Towanda, North Towanda and Laceyville fire companies.

They did indeed do the latter, with Wyalusing fire personnel there in barely a minute, according to Adam Dietz, president of the fire company and one of the first to respond. What Dietz observed confirmed what the woman who called it in had related, with one still lying on the rock and the other still in the water "and he looked like he was struggling," recalled Dietz, who was yelling to them from the shore as they were setting up there.

It was the absence of the nebulous third man that raised fears of a drowning, along with a lack of response from the two people they could see, A call went out quickly for more help and river rescue personnel. Troops were already responding from Laceyville and now they were coming from Wysox, Towanda and North Towanda with their combined river rescue crews, as well as the Tunkhannock Dive Team and Memorial EMS.

By the time all had responded, Dietz says there were four boats, an ambulance, two rescue trucks, a dive team and their gear and dozens of personnel with their own vehicles. A Fish Commission Officer also responded to the scene. How many tanks of fuel and hours of time were wasted in this response was another matter.

"I don't think anybody overreacted," says Dietz. "I talked to the woman who called it in and she said the kids were definitely agitated and upset. This must have lasted for an extended period of time."

"I'm sure they were just having a good time," Dietz added. "If they had responded when I was yelling at them or let us know there was no cause for alarm, it would have stopped right there."

As for the missing third person, the two young men insisted they were the only ones involved and reportedly told the Fish Commission Officer that they were not trying to draw attention or cause any public alarm.

The only citation handed out, according to Dietz, was one for disorderly conduct by the Fish Commission.

The positive thing about it was the quick response from all parties involved. In the event of a real river emergency in the Wyalusing area, it appears area rescue volunteers are up to the task.

"I guess we can chalk it up as a disaster drill," Dietz concluded.