Woman, dogs escape injury in Jeannette fire

A woman and four dogs escaped injury Friday when a Jeannette home caught fire and was extensively damaged, leaving a family of four homeless.

Jeannette fire Chief Bill Frye said flames were shooting out of the second-story windows of the front bedroom of the house on 14th Street when firefighters arrived, about three minutes after receiving the alarm at 12:33 p.m. They were able to get the fire under control in about 15 minutes.

As firefighters were dragging a hose up the stairs to the second floor to extinguish the fire, an oxygen tank about 35 feet away exploded and blew out a section of the second floor, shooting debris across 14th Street and onto a house, Frye said.

No one was injured in the fire, but a Jeannette firefighter was taken to an area hospital for observation because of a rapid pulse, Frye said.

Dee McAuliffe, the owner of the house at No. 1 14th St., said she was not at home at the time of the blaze, but her daughter, Heather Clark, called her to say she smelled smoke coming from the second floor.

A neighbor, Robert Williams, said he saw smoke billowing from the attic, called Westmoreland 911 and ran to the home with others to alert those inside.

“I could hear Heather screaming,” he said.

Williams said the explosion rocked the house as he was leaving.

Flames were shooting out of the attic, endangering a house about a foot away owned by neighbor Roy McCarthy, Frye said. Firefighters applied water to McCarthy’s house, which sustained only “cosmetic” damage, McCarthy said.

McAuliffe said she did not know where her family would be staying.

Frye said the cause and origin of the blaze are unknown. A state police fire marshal is investigating.

Jeannette firefighters were assisted by units from Greensburg, Penn Borough, Adamsburg and Penn Township.