An early morning house fire in Crabtree, Pennsylvania, left one dog dead and the occupants temporarily homeless, TRIB Live reports.
On Jan. 4 at around 6:00 a.m., two women driving to work noticed black smoke engulfing the home, where a father, his young daughter, and their two family dogs were at the time. According to officials, the passersby — Kandace Gettins and Marissa Perillo — immediately halted their journey to save the home’s residents.
Anthony Edward, a neighbor who also spotted the fire while leaving home for work, joined the pair to rescue his neighbors from the burning residence.
As Perillo contacted 911, Edward and Gettins worked on saving the father and child, who were trying to descend from the back roof to escape the flames.
“I had him throw her off the roof to me, the little girl,” Edward shared. Then, Gettins helped the girl’s father get to the ground. Thankfully, neither the man nor his daughter was hurt.
Second dog rescued, possible cause of fire revealed
When firefighters arrived at the scene, they found the front left corner of the two-story home burned down. Bill Watkins, Crabtree Volunteer Fire Department Chief, confirmed they rescued the family’s other dog, whose breed hasn’t been identified. However, it’s unclear whether the canine sustained injuries from the fire.
Watkins said it’s likely a heating unit on the home’s first floor started the fire. According to the fire chief, the blaze had already spread to both floors and into the attic by the time firefighters managed to extinguish it completely.
As per Latrobe Bulletin News, it took fire crews nearly 45 minutes to contain the blaze. To prevent it from reigniting, they spent another two to three hours putting out embers in between walls.
Watkins believes that were it not for the presence of smoke detectors in the residence, there would have been more fatalities.
“The bigger thing is they did have smoke detectors in the house, so that helped tremendously, saved their life basically,” he said.
Investigations into the fire are ongoing.
