By Tom Yerace
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review
VERONA, Pa. — A woman and her teenage daughter escaped their burning Verona home yesterday by leaping onto a neighbor’s roof, authorities said.
Cathy Dixon, 47, and her daughter, Jenna, 18, were trapped on the second floor by the fast-moving fire in the 500 block of Penn Avenue, Verona Fire Chief Ray Suchevich said.
“The smoke and heat were so bad that they pushed a second-floor window air conditioner out of the window and then climbed out onto the roof and then jumped over to the roof of 534,” Suchevich said. “There were three men back there, and they put a ladder up for them to climb down.”
Fire investigators are seeking the cause of the fire, reported at 10:30 a.m.
One of Cathy Dixon’s three sons, Jordan, 20, also was home and was able to get out of the house.
Chris and Natalie Brayer, who live in a duplex next to the Dixon house, were home when the fire broke out.
“I came out the front door at about 10:15 or 10:30, and I heard their front plate glass window blow out,” said Chris Brayer, 46. “There was flame shooting out.”
He said he ran out to the street in front of the house.
“I yelled to see if anybody was in there, and then I went over to the other side and I saw Cathy poke her head out from the neighbor’s roof,” Brayer said. “Then, her daughter, Jenna, I saw her jump onto the back porch.”
That house is owned by Vincent Cassano, who was home but not injured, Suchevich said.
“When that window blew out, (flames) just rolled up the front of the house and to the roof in seconds,” Chris Brayer said. “I thought ours was going to go.”
“It was very scary, very fast,” said Natalie Brayer, 42, who called 911.
Jerrad Dixon, 26, and his brother Josh, 20, were working out of town when the fire started but returned when about 40 firefighters from five departments had it under control about 11:45 a.m.
Cathy and Jenna Dixon were taken to West Penn Hospital, Bloomfield, for treatment of smoke inhalation. Jerrad Dixon said his sister also had burns to her back, arms and legs but he said both will recover.
“My poor mom is 47 years old and has a bad back, and she had to jump,” Jerrad Dixon said.
He spoke as he watched Allegheny County fire marshals sift through the ruins of the house his family has owned since 1970.
The fire killed the family’s two dogs, Rascal, a Yorkshire terrier, and Buddy, a pit bull/collie mix adopted during a family trip through Oklahoma.
The Dixon house is separated from the neighboring two by about 5 feet. Suchevich said that posed a challenge for firefighters in getting water on it from the rear, where there is no street — only the bank of the Allegheny River.
“We couldn’t go between the houses because of the fire and the heat,” he said. “We had to go up a couple of houses on each side. We had to lug hoses back there and get through fences and gates.”
“It’s a ‘win’ for us in a wa,y because we saved the houses on either side,” he said.
The Red Cross provided food and clothing for six people affected by the fire.
Copyright 2011 Tribune Review Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved