By WILLIAM DOOLITTLE
Pocono Record Writer
wdoolittle@poconorecord.com
November 12, 2001
BUSHKILL — A Saw Creek woman and her daughter lost all of their possessions, their car and home Sunday night when
their rented two-story frame house burned to the ground.
Looking out of the door of her neighbor's home at the smoldering ruins of 1516 Durham Drive, Bernice Sullivan sighed
with resignation, "It's just another episode we've got to overcome."
Sullivan parked in the driveway of her wooded lot at 7:30 p.m., and left her car facing the garage when it caught
fire.
"In a way it just exploded," she said.
The russet houses on Durham Drive are nestled against a steep ridge. They are surrounded by tall, bare trees whose
dead leaves mat the yards of the neighborhood.
"The fire jumped from the car to the leaves and climbed up the garage door," Sullivan said, "Then
suddenly the whole house was on fire."
She and her daughter, Shatira, a student at J.T. Lambert Intermediate School, were unable to approach the blazing
house. They backed off and fled to their neighbor's home.
"We've lost everything," she said. Pointing to her sweat shirt and pants, she said, "This is all
I have to wear now."
"And I don't have any renter's insurance," Sullivan added.
Sullivan rented the house where she and Shatira have resided for one and a half years from Tom Cavallino, she said.
The fire raced through the leaves lying on the forest floor six inches deep so rapidly the first firefighters on
the scene worried other houses on the road, which is off Woodbridge Drive East, would catch fire.
"All of our clothes, everything, are gone. Even the hamsters," Sullivan said.
Firefighters from the Bushkill Fire Company and surrounding departments fought the fire for hours, saving neighboring
homes by wetting down the leaves. By the time the fire was reported it was already too late to save the house,
Sullivan said.
Firefighters were hampered by a lack of water pressure.
A single mom, Sullivan moved to the Poconos from New York two years ago. She commutes to her job in the city. She
also works for Resort USA.
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