Apr 13, 2018 1 min read

A fire burned up the back of a house in North Franklin Township but caused no injuries to the family that lives there Thursday afternoon.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the fire that erupted about 3 p.m. at the house on Hamilton Street.

“Right now, all we know is the back porch was on fire,” said Chief Scott Reese of the South Strabane Volunteer Fire Department, one of the departments that responded.

The fire was under control within about half an hour. Firefighters were still checking for “hotspots” later in the afternoon but it appeared to be out.

Homeowner Ezra Hildebrand, 37, said he came home from picking his daughter up from preschool to the smell of smoke. He could see the fire through a back window.

His mother-in-law and two-year-old son were also in the house. He said his main priority was to make sure everyone got out safely.

“You can rebuild,” said Hildebrand, a former Canonsburg volunteer firefighter. “You can’t rebuild people.”