By ROBIN SHANNON

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – Five former St. Bernard Parish residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina were displaced once again over the New Year’s holiday weekend after a fireworks-ignited fire tore through their LaPlace home in the River Forest Subdivision.

The fire was discovered just after 2 a.m. New Year’s Day by their 18-year-old neighbor, who was heading home after dropping off some friends.

“We heard him pounding on the door and yelling that the roof was on fire,” said homeowner Travis Karcher. “Thank God he was there when he was. He saved our lives.”

Karcher said the good samaritan, Zachary Revall, who lives a few blocks from the burning home, entered and exited the house multiple times in an effort to rescue the four other adult residents inside, including Karcher’s disabled son Travis Jr., who is paralyzed after just undergoing neurosurgery to remove a brain tumor.

“We had all gone to sleep just after midnight so we wouldn’t have known what was happening until it was too late to do anything,” Karcher said. “Zach really went above and beyond to get us out.”

LaPlace Fire Chief John Snyder said the blaze was reported around 2:21 a.m. on New Year’s Day. He said firemen arrived on the scene about six minutes later.

The fire was confined to the second-story roof of the home, located on Devon Road. Snyder said the fire spread across the roof and did extensive damage to the attic and roof of the home.

Snyder said the fire was the result of by a stray bottle rocket that became lodged between the home’s roof and siding. He said wind fanned the flames and ignited the blaze. He said firefighters discovered the fireworks once everything was fully extinguished.

“When I got to the scene a neighbor was hitting the flames with a hose pipe,” said Snyder, who lives in the River Forest subdivision. “The fire units were not far behind and the blaze was extinguished after about two hours of work.”

Other than some minor smoke inhalation, Snyder said no one was injured as a result of the fire. He said Revall suffered a few scratches and burns, but nothing major.

Karcher, 83, said a neighbor took the family in for the night, but the five residents of the home are now holed up in a hotel until more permanent arrangements can be made. Karcher said he estimates that it may take up to four months to repair the home.

The fire marks the second time Karcher and his family had been forced to pick up and move. He said he, his wife Estelle and their three adult children, Travis Jr., Mark and Theresa, relocated to LaPlace following Hurricane Katrina. The family lost three homes as a result of the storm.

“We are all lucky to be alive and we can’t thank Zach enough for everything he did, but this has caused us some serious heartache,” said Karcher. “This is tough for us to handle. We were hoping 2009 would be better than 2008, but this is not such a good start.”

Snyder said the blaze is the first fireworks-related fire in St. John Parish in recent memory. He said the fire department often gets calls about brush fires caused by fireworks, but nothing more serious than that.