Man burned in Washington house fire
A man suffered severe burns on his legs Monday morning when his pajama bottoms caught fire while he apparently was smoking a cigarette in bed inside his Washington home.
Jack Rutan, 68, was smoking in an upstairs bedroom when the fire started, igniting his pants and then spreading to the bed shortly before 11 a.m., Washington firefighters said.
His wife, Sharon, was downstairs in the home they rent at 846 Fayette St. and heard the commotion upstairs. She found her husband trying to remove his pants in the bathtub.
“The whole bed was up in the flames, and the wall,” Sharon Rutan said while standing outside their damaged house.
He was taken by ambulance to UPMC-Mercy hospital in Pittsburgh for treatment at the hospital’s burn unit. His condition was not available Monday night.
Sharon and the couple’s adult son, Charlie, were able to escape the fire uninjured.
Washington fire Chief Linn Brookman said they believe “careless cigarette smoking” caused the fire, but that Jack Rutan was not asleep at the time. Sharon Rutan said her husband’s oxygen tank was off when the fire began.
Neighbors reported seeing smoke coming from the home’s roof and later an upstairs bedroom window.
The 800 block of Fayette Street was closed for about an hour while crews extinguished the blaze and investigated. A state police fire marshal was at the scene investigating.