PITTSBURGH — Fire destroyed a home in Pittsburgh’s Marshall-Shadeland neighborhood late Thursday morning. Firefighters spent hours trying to get the fire knocked out and the smoke under control.
“I just don’t know what I’m going to do,” said Brenda McElroy, who lives in the Dickson Street home owned by her daughter.
McElroy had just gotten off the bus when she said she saw the smoke in the neighborhood.
“I was walking from the bus stop and I was coming this way. I’d seen smoke and heard all of the firemen and I came walking this way to make sure,” McElroy said.
She said she lost everything.
“All the stuff. My mother’s stuff. Everything is gone,” she told Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek.
She hadn’t been living at the home for the last few weeks. She was living with a friend because the house didn’t have heat.
“There’s no heat in the house so there’s a turbo heater with propane and we used that and something happened,” McElroy said.
McElroy’s son and his wife were home when the fire started. Both were able to get out safely and were not hurt.
Pittsburgh Public Safety said a neighbor was evacuated from a home next door — but not because of the fire.
“Right now there are some hoarding issues that we’re looking into, but it’s unrelated to the fire, not to do with smoke or anything like that,” said Eliza Durham.
Channel 11 asked if the turbo heater was the cause of the fire, but firefighters told Durham it’s still unclear.
“We don’t know what caused the fire right now,” Durham said. “It’s going to be a long investigation after the work is done here today.”
McElroy is glad her family is safe, and was thankful for the firefighter’s quick response.
“Oh I’m very thankful,” she said. “People are worth more than stuff
McElroy said there were two cats in the home, but Pittsburgh Public Safety was not sure if they were found.
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