Building repairs begin after fire

Sep. 30--SHARPSVILLE -- Students at Shenango Valley Faith Academy worked on assignments in class this week, while some of their peers hurried by carrying lunch boxes.

It seemed like a typical day, even though their schoolhouse was damaged by fire about two months ago.

Shenango Valley Faith Academy, located in the Trail Blazer building, 100 W. Ridge Ave., Sharpsville, is only now starting to return to normal after the Aug. 1 blaze.

Head teacher Cara Print said the fire forced Shenango Valley Faith Academy to delay the start of school by a week. Otherwise, the charter school was largely unaffected.

"We came in and wiped everything off because there was a little soot, but otherwise everything was fine," Print said.

While the businesses that call the Trail Blazer building home are getting back to normal, signs of the fire, from stains in the hallway carpets to smoke damage in the rooms, are still evident.

And for some, life at the Trail Blazer will never return to normal. Building owner Ray Andel said only one tenant plans to return to an apartment on the ground floor, which has 12 units. On the third floor, only seven out of 12 apartments are occupied.

Fire damage is still most evident on the ground floor, where a state police fire marshal said the blaze was deliberately set. Parts of the drop ceiling are missing, and the walls are grayed with smoke damage.

The door to Apartment 24 -- near the fire's origin -- is almost completely burned black.

Courtney Diane Speir-Chrastina, 25, who lived in Apartment 24 at the time of the fire, was charged Aug. 1 with arson and other offenses. As of Friday, she was in Mercer County Jail awaiting trial.

Meanwhile, Andel is continuing work to bring residents back to the building. However, he said difficulties over insurance have delayed repair efforts.

"It's frustrating," he said.

But Andel has nothing but praise for Servpro, a restoration company that has been working on the building for almost two months.

"Servpro has been the one beacon of hope during all of this," he said.

Even though remediation efforts are taking longer than anticipated, Andel credits Sharpsville's police and fire departments' work to safely evacuate residents and for preserving the building, which previously served as Sharpsville High School and later as a middle school.

A brick structure only a few feet from a exit near the fire's origin houses natural gas valves, which are connected to main gas lines.

Had the fire ignited the gas lines or the pump station, Andel said he doesn't want to think about what the damage to the building could have been, or the potential of the fire spreading through the lines to other houses.

"We could've been on the national news in a bad way," Andel said.

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