The Black Forest Project 421: My thoughts and condolences: Amish Mother & 6 Children Killed In Home Explosion And Fire

Members of the Amish community, dressed in Sunday church clothing, gathered at the site of a tragic home explosion and fire in Clinton County, PA. Image: WNEP/YT

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https://amishamerica.com/amish-mother-6-children-killed-home-explosion-fire/

Amish mother, Sarah Stoltzfus, 34, and her six children were buried in East End Cemetery, surrounded by mourning members of their Amish community. They were killed in a home explosion and fire in Clinton County, PA on Sunday April 19, 2026.

I will post two articles from amishamerica.com, before I give my thoughts and condolences.

Amish Mother & 6 Children Killed In Home Explosion And Fire

By Erik Wesner April 20, 2026

A devastating explosion and fire has taken the lives of seven people in a Clinton County, Pennsylvania Amish community – six of them young children.

This is the third explosion at an Amish home or school we’ve covered here in the past month. And if bad news comes in threes, this is by far the worst of the bunch. Like the others, this incident also involves heating fuel – in this case a suspected propane leak in the home.

The explosion happened early Sunday morning – around 8:30 AM. Members of the Amish community who came to the scene were in their church clothing, as this was right around the time Amish services begin. From WJAC:

Emergency crews were dispatched around 8:30 a.m. to a home along the 700 block of Long Run Road in Lamar Township after reports of an explosion and structure fire with possible entrapment.

When firefighters arrived, state police say the home was already fully engulfed in flames, preventing any attempt to search for survivors.

Authorities say all seven occupants inside the residence were trapped and died as a result of the explosion and fire.

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https://amishamerica.com/amish-mother-6-children-killed-home-explosion-fire/

VIDEO SOURCE: https://youtu.be/mh64puoZxdg?si=1akeEdzhsf43l3Q8

Members of the Amish community with firemen

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Father Was At Church At Time Of Amish Home Explosion; Mother & 6 Children Laid To Rest Today

By Erik Wesner April 22, 2026

We have more details this week following Sunday’s deadly explosion and fire at an Amish home in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, which killed mother Sarah Stoltzfus, 34, and her six children, aged 2 to 11. We’ve also got information at bottom on how to help.

Amish community member David Stoltzfus is the husband and father. It’s not really thinkable to place yourself in the shoes of someone who lost his entire family in one fell swoop. That’s another way of saying it’s near impossible to imagine what he might be going through at this time.

On Wednesday, a procession of buggies carried the bodies of Sarah and her six children to East End Cemetery in Salona, PA, as reported by the Lock Haven Express:

SALONA — A quiet procession of seven horse-drawn buggies carried the bodies of Sarah Stoltzfus, 34, and her six children to their final resting place Wednesday, three days after they were killed in a fast-moving house fire.

The seven victims of one of the deadliest fires in Clinton County’s recent memory were buried in East End Cemetery, surrounded by mourning members of their Amish community.

The burial followed a lengthy visitation at a nearby farm in Lamar Township. Auction Road, where the visitation took place, was closed between noon and 2 p.m. to accommodate mourners and the funeral procession.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Cm7YVXBN2/

http://amishamerica.com/amish-home-explosion-father-at-church-mother-6-children-laid-to-rest/

VIDEO SOURCE: https://youtu.be/G5eE0eYLUDQ?si=1yofF6jw6nWhMuEx

I stand with our Amish community

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MY THOUGHTS & CONDOLENCES:

I would like to offer my condolences to David Stoltzfus for the loss of his wife and six kids. I will keep them in prayers.

At the same time, I would love to thank the firefighters for helping the Amish community to put out the fire. They are the Non-Amish who help the Amish community during emergency as Franz Kafka said:

Better to have, and not need, than to need, and not have. - Franz Kafka

²⁴And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: ²⁵Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

– Hebrews 10:24-25 (KJV)

[SOURCE: https://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/todaysverse.cgi?day=20210222&ver=kjv]

Thoughts on Today's Verse...

We need each other. We cannot make it on our own. God calls us to get together regularly to encourage and motivate each other in Christ to live vibrant lives of service to each other and faith in him. With the day of Jesus' return and our ultimate victory on the horizon, we should be even more motivated to help and encourage each other. And as the Spirit of God reminds us in our passage today, we need to consider and plan how best to help spur each other along to love and good deeds.

My Prayer...

Lord God, thank you for giving me a Christian family to encourage and motivate me to serve others. Please use me to bless others when we gather in Jesus' name and praise you. I ask for the Holy Spirit's help to know how best to encourage and inspire my brothers and sisters in Christ to join me in doing good deeds and loving each other. In the name of the Lord Jesus, I pray to be a more encouraging person, one known for building others up in Jesus. It is in his name, and for his glory I live and pray. Amen.

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BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/02/sermons-on-hebrews-10-verse-24-to-25.html

I also love the Amish community who stood with David Stoltzfus, as they follow their 4 core values: faith, family, community and simple life. Just like they help with barn raising and rebuilding North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, they also are helping Stoltzfus, through comfort and mutual aid.

“Community is like an old coat you aren’t aware of it until it is taken away.” – Amish Proverb

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BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/11/plain-people-and-mutual-aid-why-we-live.html

If you want to donate money to help David Stoltzfus, here are the information:

For those outside the community wishing to help, a donation box will be available at the Old School Market, 34 East End Mountain Road, Mill Hall, on April 24 and 25.

But if you’re not local, you can still contribute, according to the report at Penn Live and a notice posted by the Old School Market Facebook page. Checks can be made payable to the David Stoltzfus Fund and mailed to: David Stoltzfus Fund, First National Bank, PO Box 35, Loganton, PA 17747.

Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. – Galatians 6:2 (KJV)

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/todaysverse.cgi?day=20130602&ver=kjv]

OTHER LINKS: https://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/bible-verses-about-community/

BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-pastor-of-reconciliation-geri.html

BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/05/heal-our-land-conference-2003.html

COMMUNITY LINKS:

" Community is like an old coat, you aren't aware of it until it is taken away." – Amish Proverb

The Amish Four Core Values: Faith, Family, Community and Simple Living.

THE FOUR CORE VALUES OF THE ANABAPTIST

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-four-core-values-of-anabaptist.html

Very few burdens are heavy if everyone lifts. – Amish Proverb

We do not relegate the pulpit work, or the rest of the church’s teaching, to the lead pastor to handle as much as he can alone and then fill slots when he’s on vacation. We value plurality in teaching, and preaching, just as we value the plurality of elders in decision-making, oversight, and pastoral ministry throughout the week. We begin not by asking how the lead pastor can preach as much as possible, but by asking how we can most effectively teach and preach as a team of pastors.

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/06/team-preaching-is-like-barn-raising.html

SERMONS ON HEBREWS 10 VERSE 24 TO 25 – THE GOSPEL COMMUNITY

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/02/sermons-on-hebrews-10-verse-24-to-25.html

“We must live in community because we are stimulated by the same creative Spirit of unity who calls nature to unity and through whom work and culture shall become community in God.” — Eberhard Arnold

PLAIN PEOPLE AND MUTUAL AID - WHY WE LIVE IN COMMUNITY BY EBERHARD ARNOLD

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/11/plain-people-and-mutual-aid-why-we-live.html

"Women, whether subtly or vociferously, have always been a tremendous power in the destiny of the world, it’s up to the women.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Wiedertäufer Frauen bei der Arbeit – Anabaptist women at work

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/07/wiedertaufer-frauen-bei-der-arbeit.html

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. – African Proverb

AMISH MUTUAL AID: AMISH HELPING TO REBUILD NORTH CAROLINA FOLLOWING HURRICANE HELENE

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/06/amish-mutual-aid-amish-helping-to.html