John Valby – the local music scene’s popular “Dr. Dirty” – strongly suspects that the fire that destroyed his family’s Clarence home Sunday morning was suspicious, possibly started by some young people pulling some kind of senseless prank.
It’s hard for him to believe that the fire in his Sawmill Road home wasn’t related to the blowing up or burning of two garbage totes on his property just three days earlier.
Fire officials say that fast-spreading flames left an estimated $500,000 damage to the home that Valby described as a wooden Minnesota log home. The fire gutted and destroyed the residence, leaving part of the roof collapsed.
The fire started on the deck of the home.
“People heard a couple of pops, like shotguns,” Valby said. “Two minutes later, the deck was engulfed in flames. Fire doesn’t start by itself. It just seems suspicious now. I have no proof. It just seems that way.”
Valby, who has earned the name “Dr. Dirty” with his off-color jingles on stage, doesn’t believe anyone in his six-member household was being targeted.
“This is just someone pulling pranks,” he said.
Clarence Fire Company Second Assistant Chief Jeff Schlabach confirmed that firefighters were called to the Valby residence a few nights earlier to put out a fire in the garbage totes.
But Schlabach said he wasn’t sure how either blaze started. The Erie County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.
“I don’t know the correlation between the two,” he said.
For now, Valby, his wife, Anne, two daughters, one son-in-law and a granddaughter are staying in a neighbor’s empty home while they wait to rebuild.
“I’m thinking of it as a new chapter,” Valby said. “We’re moving on. New grist for the mill. I can write a good blues song about it.”
He was asked what he would say to the people who started the fire.
“I feel sorry for them,” he replied. “We’re going to be OK, but they have some serious issues. I’m not sure they thought the house would catch on fire.”

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