ELIZABETH TOWNSHIP- A fire

severely damaged a house on Rock Hollow Road in Elizabeth Township Wednesday.

The fire appears to have started in the kitchen.

Martina Goody said she left her house to pick up her son, and when she returned, she discovered it was on fire. No one was in the house at the time the fire started.

Elizabeth Township Fire Chief Dale Waugh said the kitchen sustained heavy damage, and the rest of the structure sustained smoke and heat damage.

Goody and her neighbors said they live less than five miles from the Elizabeth Township Fire department, but said it took more than a half an hour for the crews to arrive on the scene because part of Rock Hollow Road is closed off by a gate at the end of a bridge on that roadway.

"Elizabeth (Volunteer Fire Department) could have been here in five minutes, but they had to go around (State Route) 650 and up (U.S.) 52 and around to get here," Goody's mother, Diana Spillman said. "The road is blocked off."

As they watched the firefighters put out the blaze, Goody and her neighbors said they wished the road were opened so that in emergencies such as this, they could have a faster response from the fire department.

Lawrence County Engineer David Lynd said the part of the road beyond the bridge is actually private, and is not considered part of Rock Hollow Road.

"It's always been private, as far as I know," Lynd said. "The records we have in our office, we have no evidence that it is public."