Longtime Cetronia resident William "Buddy" Marsteller recently reflected on the fatal fire that displaced his family, injured his neighbor and killed a mother and her daughter 75 years ago.

"I was only 7 years old when the fire occurred," Marsteller said.

Marsteller, his parents Thomas and Annie, and two of his three sisters, Ruth and Dorothy, were upstairs in their bedrooms when the 4:40 a.m. fire broke out May 24, 1937.

The third sister, Minnie, who was 21 at the time, was not home, he said.

Marsteller said his family learned of the early morning fire in the duplex his family shared with Clarence and Verna Beitler and their baby daughter Janice Louise, when Clarence called out to his wife, who was upstairs with the baby at the time of the fire.

The Marsteller and Beitler homes were across the street from the old Cetronia Fire Company on Dorney Park Road, South Whitehall.

"When Beitler called for his wife, he also called for my father and woke us all up," Marsteller said.

Verna, 26, and her 9-month-old daughter Janice Louise died in the fire and Clarence was burned, he said.

Marsteller said he was the only one in his family who ran out the back door that morning.

"The whole back side of the Beitler home was in flames," he said. "When I saw the fire, I screamed. After that, I don't remember much.

"Our side of the house had a lot of smoke, water and fire damage, but the whole side of their house burned down."

Marsteller said an overturned oil stove in the Beitler home may have caused the fire that brought firefighters from Cetronia, Wescosville and Greenawalds fire companies and the former Franklin fire company to the duplex.

Marsteller's mother took out clothes for everybody that morning, but didn't get any out for him because he ran out the backdoor.

"I had to wear my cousin's son's clothes until they got something for me," he said.

Some of the Marsteller family furniture was usable. A few pieces were refurbished.

"Our whole family and possibly all of Cetronia went to the funeral for Verna and Janice Louise," he said.

Masteller attended the former South Whitehall High School and work in the furniture business until he retired.

Marsteller, 82, and his wife of 63 years, Claire, still live in South Whitehall Township, where they raised four boys.

The couple has nine grandchildren.

Marsteller thanked Nancy Brey, Clarence's niece, for putting together a scrapbook of newspaper clippings of the fatal fire.

With help of the book, he was able to remember some of the events that night he had forgotten over the years.