
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 17, 1994                   TAG: 9403170133
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FAMILY LOSES RORER AVENUE HOME TO BLAZE

Flanked by his two sons, James Greenway stood with his hands in his pockets in the back yard of his house at 1621 Rorer Ave. S.W. and watched it burn Wednesday night.

"It's a total loss . . . I know it is," said Greenway, his hair singed by flames. "We didn't have time to get anything. We can't even move our cars out of the way, because all our keys are inside."

Greenway's son, Troy, said he was sitting at the dinner table around 8:15 when he heard something "sizzling."

James Greenway then opened the door to a hall in the downstairs portion of the two-story rented home and came face-to-face with a wall of flames.

"We just took off out the back door," he said. "There was no way we were going out the front."

At the time of the fire, Greenway, his two sons, his wife, a daughter-in-law and a grandchild were in the bottom half of the home. All made it out safely.

The vacant upstairs portion of the house was home to five puppies and their mother. Greenway said the dogs perished in the blaze.

Greenway said he believes the fire - which fully engulfed the home - started near a dryer in the front of the house. Capt. David Bocock said the blaze was still under investigation.

Greenway said his family was planning to stay at his mother's house in Roanoke Wednesday night.

"Everything we owned was in there," he said, watching as firefighters sprayed the outside of the house and knocked down the top of the front porch with axes. "We had sure done a lot of remodeling since we moved in."

by CNB