Fundraising underway to help families displaced by apartment fire in West View

Donations are being collected to help two families who lost all their possessions in a fire April 28 that heavily damaged their apartment building in West View.

A woman who was rescued from the four-unit building on Oakwood Avenue suffered burns and smoke inhalation. She is being treated at UPMC Mercy Hospital, where she remained in critical condition as of April 30, according borough police chief Bruce Fromlak.

A firefighter from the Berkeley Hills Fire Co. was treated at the scene for a minor injury.

Fundraising is underway for two of the families displaced by the fire.

A gofundme.com account has been set up to help Blake Gray and his daughter, Deklyn Mathews-Gray, who attends first grade at West View Elementary School.

An account also has been set up to help a woman and her fiance, Tyler Adams, who works as an emergency medical technician for Ross/West View EMS and is a volunteer firefighter for the Berkeley Hills and West View #3 departments.

Crews worked for more than two hours to bring the fire under control.

The Allegheny County Fire Marshal is investigating the cause of the fire, but it is believed to have started in the living room area near a couch in one of the apartments, according to Fromlak, who also serves as West View’s borough manager.

Every window in the front of the two-story front building was broken out, and smoke scorched the outer brick walls from the inside.

The building suffered heavy fire, smoke and water damage “but it does appear that it may be salvageable,” Fromlak said.