JEANNETTE, Pa. — “I saw the fire pretty much breaking though the windows, you can hear the glass breaking.”
Robert Williams was standing in his bathroom window when he saw flames and smoke coming out of his neighbor’s house on South 14th Street.
He called 911 and ran outside.
As Williams rushed in to get the family’s dogs out, an explosion could be heard from the street.
”She was screaming saying the pets were inside so myself and three other people went inside and tried to get the pets out,” Williams said.
”It didn’t sound quite as loud to us, cause we were on the inside coming out so it didn’t sound that loud to us but everyone else said it rocked and like shook the block,” he said.
The fire was already churning by the time Jeannette firefighters showed up within three minutes of the call.
”We had very active fire in the second floor. Looked like a front bedroom,” said Jeannette Fire Chief Bill Frye. “There were flames already venting out of the windows and eves of then attic.”
Frye said two of his guys were within 50 feet of the room when another explosion ripped the front of house apart.
”There was a large explosion that blew out part of the front wall and determined that to be an oxygen cylinder that exploded and blew debris across the street,” Frye said.
Remarkably no one was hurt, but first responders say the quick response not only helped keep people safe but it prevented the fire from spreading 12 inches to the house next door.
”That makes a huge difference cause these fires with the materials we have in modern houses, they burn hotter and faster than ever before, so that staffing even though it’s a couple guys it makes a huge difference,” Frye said.
A state fire marshal was called in to investigate. The chief says they still have some witness interviews and physical evidence to look at before figuring out a cause.
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