Washington residents escape house fire early Sunday
Courtesy of Bentleyville Volunteer Fire Department
Firefighters prepare to enter a house on Murtland Avenue in Washington early Sunday.
Courtesy of Washington Fire Department
Firefighters extinguish a house fire on Murtland Avenue in Washington early Sunday.
Several Washington residents escaped a house fire early Sunday morning, thanks to a Washington Hospital doctor who saw smoke and reported it.
The call came in about 2:36 a.m. for a fire at a house at 36 Murtland Ave. According to Washington fire Chief Gerald Coleman, an emergency room doctor who was on his way home from a shift at Washington Hospital saw smoke coming from the house and called 911.
“The doctor just happened to be driving by after a shift and reported a large amount of smoke coming from the side of the house,” Coleman said. “Had it gone unnoticed much longer, it could have been a much worse situation.”
A man, woman and their four children escaped an apartment on the ground floor, which didn’t have any working smoke detectors, Coleman said. The fire had apparently been smoldering a while outside under the side porch before it got into the walls of the building, Coleman said.
“There was a lot of fire in that wall,” he said. “There was a lot of smoke. The inside of that first apartment had zero visibility.”
The state police fire marshal ruled the fire cause as undetermined.
Two other apartments, which were occupied, were evacuated that night. Coleman said the other two apartments didn’t have any fire or water damage.
The displaced family was assisted by the Red Cross, he said.
A number of pet reptiles, snakes and lizards also survived the fire, Coleman said.
Assisting Washington at the scene were firefighters from North Strabane, Peters and Bentleyville, along with city police and Ambulance & Chair EMS.