On Tuesday,  April 1, smoke detectors saved the lives of a young family who were able to escape a near tragedy and move on with their lives. Said Assistant Fire Chief Mike Simpson, (in the fire’s aftermath). “When I arrived at the scene flames were showing and there was heavy smoke, if there had not been a smoke detector I am almost certain there would be a fatality.” To be sure, the firefighters from the Keyser, McCoole, Fountain, New Creek fire departments, along with the Piedmont Air Truck and Keyser EMS did a fine job in controlling the fire and getting everybody in the house to safety, and thankfully kept the blaze from spreading to the neighboring properties on Carskadon Road.
 But the story did not end there.  The fire left the structure at 550 South Mineral Street — pictured to the right— vacant and severely damaged. Many of you reading this column may drive past this property but may have never actually noticed the dilapidated condition of the structure, as it is fairy well hidden behind some trees and shrubs where it sits between an office building and an auto parts store on Route 220.
The house has been empty for over 85  days now. Empty, that is, if you don’t count the rats that have moved into the home and have been invading the neighboring properties on Carskadon Road. One resident, Christie Lyons, was a tenant of one of the apartments on Carskadon Road and has been forced to vacate her apartment due to the invading rats.  Lyons killed one herself on June 19 and when she saw the second one a few minutes later, she packed up her 10-month old granddaughter and moved in with a relative in Elk Garden.
According to Lyons, “They are still coming in. I found traces of rats in my granddaughter’s bed on June 22 and items that were on my son’s dresser are now on the floor.”
There does not seem to be anybody denying the source and the cause of this rat infestation that has forced Christie Lyons and Paulette Athey from their homes. Lyons states that she had not seen a rat or even a mouse near her apartment (where she has lived for a little over a year) prior to the property, which is owned by Paula Piehl, suffering the fire damage.
This biggest question in this whole matter is why Piehl has seemingly done nothing that can be perceived as having taken the slightest of measures to accept her share of responsibility in this matter, let alone be a “good neighbor.” Even though Keyser building inspector Earl Perrine said he witnessed at least half a dozen rats running up and down the trees that were on the property of the dilapidated home (at 550 South Mineral Street), with windows boarded up, Piehl appears to be in a bit of denial.
No doubt about it, this is an ugly story. Perhaps, had Paula Piehl, the landlord of the blighted property, lived nearby, better yet, next door to Christie Lyons, Paulette Athey, or Francine Shanahan on Carskadon Road, things would have been handled differently in the days following the fire of April 1. Situations as this one should never happen.
 Hopefully, now that this property is no longer hidden from public view, the landlord will eradicate the rat problem from her and her neighbor’s property, as well as reimburse the neighbors for their own extermination and clean-up efforts that would not have been necessary had the right steps been taken back on April 2. Should the landlord not properly fulfill her responsibilities, we have no doubt that the mayor and the city of Keyser will step in and do what is right for the citizens on Carskadon Road who should not have to deal with these rats or the health risks that they present.