By Andrew Johnson
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Copyright 2007 Tribune Review Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved
GREENFIELD, Pa. — A fire broke out Saturday in a two-story duplex in Greenfield, critically injuring one woman who had to be rescued by firefighters.
Acting Deputy Fire Chief Gary Walz said the woman’s injuries were life-threatening.
The woman, described by neighbors as being in her 60s, had lived with her sister in the tan brick house for at least the past three years. She was taken by paramedics to Mercy Hospital, Uptown, where her condition was not disclosed.
Ricky L. Cunningham, 30, who lives on the other side of the duplex, said the neighbor who escaped realized her sister had not, and begin screaming and trying to re-enter. The woman had to be restrained.
“She kept yelling, '(my) sister,’ '(my) sister,’” he said. “She kept trying to get back in there.”
Authorities didn’t immediately identify the injured woman.
Both dwellings in the duplex, along the 4100 block of Lydia Street, are likely a total loss, according to firefighters.
The two-alarm fire broke out about 11 a.m.
“I saw the fire engines, and there were flames everywhere,” said Mary Schaffer, who lives two doors away from the burned house,
The fire was extinguished by 11:50 a.m. No other homes were damaged, and no firefighters were injured, Walz said.
An investigation is under way to determine the cause.
Cunningham said he had been asleep in his home when he woke up and noticed his house filling with black smoke.
“I didn’t even know if it was my house or my next door neighbor’s” that was on fire, he said.
He said he got his children, Capresia, 14, Memorie, 10, and Rikorian, 6, who were watching TV in a bedroom. He told them to put on their shoes, and they left the house.