Victim of fatal Derry Township house fire identified
An elderly woman died after a house fire Saturday night, one of two simultaneous fires Christmas Eve in Derry Township.
Bradenville Volunteer Fire Department members along with crew from a half-dozen other companies were called to Pizza Barn Road around 5:30 p.m. Saturday for a report of a house fire, Bradenville officials said.
Not long after, Westmoreland 911 officials also received a call for a reported porch fire at a home on Twin Oaks Road, the opposite end of the township.
A woman trapped in the Pizza Barn Road fire died of her injuries. Westmoreland County Coroner Tim Carson identified her Sunday as Ester Ann McChesney, 78.
McChesney’s cause of death was pending an autopsy scheduled for Monday, Carson said.
Firefighters had to battle not just the fire, but the weather conditions.
“The weather conditions were the worst. It delayed our response because the roads were nothing but a sheet of ice,” Bradenville Chief Mark Piantine told Tribune-Review news partner WPXI. “As you can see, we’re in the process of picking up hose. We put 1,000 feet of hose down to get our water supply. We’re trying to get it picked up before it freezes.”
Piantine told WPXI that the woman’s husband was able to escape from the house.
State fire marshals are investigating the cause of the fire.
Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.
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