M. Hoops forward forced to flee home fire

The Summer Pennsylvanian

Mark Zoller has made headlines over the last two years for his exploits on the floor of the Palestra. Over the last week, however, the rising junior forward was in the news for an entirely different and considerably more dangerous reason.

On May 17, one of Zoller's neighbors lost control of his car and crashed into a gas main on the side of Zoller's mother's townhouse at the Blue Bell Country Club, just outside of Philadelphia.

The collision and resulting explosion produced a sizeable fire, which engulfed the nearby garage and did significant damage to the front of Zoller's house. Zoller was in the house alone at the time but was unharmed.

Earlier this week he spoke to The Summer Pennsylvanian about the explosion and how it happened.

"A neighbor who lives two houses down on the same side of the street took the car out, and this car slammed into a parked car in his neighbor's house across the street," Zoller said. The car "did a 180-type deal, and I guess [the neighbor] thought the brake was the accelerator, and he slammed into the side of the house."

The flames drew the attention of Philadelphia's TV stations, which sent their helicopters to film the scene.

"It was on Action News that day," Zoller said, referring to the newscast on WPVI-TV, the city's ABC affiliate.

Zoller said that "the house shook" when the initial explosion happened and that he had to run out the back of the house onto the country club's golf course because he could not go out the front door.

"The flames were right there, and I couldn't do anything," he said. "As I was running around the back of the house, I called 911."

Once Zoller got out, some nearby golfers helped him settle down and assess the scene.

"It was mostly the front of our house that got damaged, water and fire damage," he said. "The houses besides me kind of got damaged a little bit, but nothing to the extent that our house got."

Zoller said that repairs to the home would take several months and that his family had to remove items from more of the house than was damaged by the fire.

Although there was a lot of damaged property, there were no damaged humans, which was the most important thing for everyone involved. Zoller called the experience "a hassle with the house and everything" and "one of those pain-in-the-ass-type deals."

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