CJ Pletcher had just stripped down to a pair of shorts and crawled into bed after working a night shift when he smelled the smoke and felt the heat Friday morning and ran out of the house. When he turned, it was hard to fathom what he was seeing for the second time in as many days.

Only this time was worse, much worse.

The home he grew up in and still shared with his family was being eaten by flames.

He stood in the yard, in the brisk fall morning air, wearing the only thing of his — his shorts — that survived the fire, other than his memories. A neighboring family found him a shirt and a pair of shoes to wear.

Fire personnel from six local departments — Somerset, Listie, Friedens, Rockwood, Sipesville and Berlin — were called to the scene at 7:47 a.m. along Locust Street in Somerset after a neighbor called 911. There was a fire call on Thursday afternoon at the same location that had created smoke damage and was fixable, according to Pletcher. Friday's fire was another matter, he said.

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Half a day later, his sister, Amber, who is studying to be a licensed practical nurse, stood beside her dad in the same neighbor’s front yard, about 10 feet or so from where the fire was still smoldering in her family’s home.

She watched as nearly three dozen firefighters continued to douse the few remaining hot spots. Pieces of charred furniture and keepsakes fell out of the upper floor’s broken windows like a stream, forming unrecognizable dark puddles below.

Some firefighters pointed to an eagle circling the house overhead several times, and they wondered aloud if it was a good or bad omen.

“My laptop,” Amber said. At that moment, her connection to her classes and her future appeared to be melting away.

“It is all good, honey. We’ll get you another laptop and hopefully we will get the curriculum downloaded on it,” said her dad, Chip Pletcher, still in his work clothes with what appeared to be smoke residue on his shirt.

For possibly the first time that morning, Amber's lips turned up slightly at the corners.

“What're you going to say. Everyone got out and no life was lost,” Chip said as he gazed at the remains of his family’s home.

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“That is heartbreaking. Especially for my wife (Elaine), she’s lived there her whole life,” he said. His wife was being comforted in the home of her neighbor. Soon Chip, CJ and Amber joined her and their friends.

“I hope it is savable. It is ugly,” he said.

The firemen said the company that insures the house called it “totaled.”

Chip sighed when he heard that and then told a story someone told him, something he always remembers. The man had lost his his wife and his grandchild. Chip didn’t know how the man could cope and when he asked the man how he did the answer was, “That is why the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror. You need to look forward.”

That is hard to do, Chip said.

Faith and Shane Custer, sister and brother, and their parents, Kathy and John Custer, are good friends with the Pletcher family.

He lives with his fiance in Ligonier.

"I came home and I didn't see anything. It was around 7:40 a.m. And I pulled in and I went in my parents' house. I was talking to my dad. I was going to cut firewood this morning for my future mother-in-law. And my dad came out and got in his car and went to work," he said.

He went downstairs to get the gas can and came back up. When he came out, the Pletchers' "house was smoking."

"I ran over. I saw another neighbor who lives down the road and she had already called 911."

Shane, his mother and another neighbor moved their vehicles out of the way.

Faith was in her bedroom in the back of the house. "I heard Shane ran back. (He was running back to get his mother.) And mom ran out and I ran after asking, 'What's going on?' I came out and saw it was on fire again."

"It was terrifying," said the high school senior. "Seeing all the stuff falling out. I thought, 'It could have been us.'"

"It is scary. There was all kinds of smoke over this way," Kathy Custer said. "It was so hot and we didn't know if it was going to catch our house."

It was a lot, she said.

She spoke of her daughter, Faith, who is a brain cancer survivor, and a caring neighbor.

"She was so sweet she even called her friend and neighbor. She said don't get worried, because it was the house next to her. She said you aren't going to be able to come up the street," she said.

Somerset Volunteer Fire Department Safety Officer Dave Sube and Fire Chief James Clark were the first to arrive at 137 Locust Street.

It was a rekindle, Sube said. The fire was hotter on Thursday, but had flames on Friday, according to firefighters.

"The fire was showing from the upper floor through the windows," Sube said as he helped with other firefighters at the scene later that day.

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"It was all defensive," he said about the approach to trying to save the house. "We had to keep the fire under control for everybody's safety. And the crew started extinguishing the fire. Then it was overhauling."

Everyone worked well together, Sube said.

“We’ll get through this. We will definitely get through this,” Chip said softly.

Later, his voice stronger, he said, “We will do what we can do."

The family was notified by the Red Cross on Thursday. They hadn't had time to work out the details of what they were going to do Friday, but they are working on it.

The state police fire marshal is investigating the cause of the fire.