Girl, dog rescued from fire at Penn Township home

A young girl and a dog were rescued from a fire that extensively damaged a Penn Township home Monday afternoon.

The juvenile female was unconscious when two Irwin firefighters and a Harrison City firefighter reached her in a second-floor room, said Irwin Deputy Fire Chief Shawn Stitely.

“It was very smoky. You were working in darkness” to find the girl, Stitely said.

The girl was transported by ambulance to a hospital, said Tom Lamacz, first assistant chief of the Harrison City Fire Department in Penn Township. The condition of the girl was not available.

The fire started in the rear deck of the house, extensively damaging the rear of the structure before spreading to the interior of the house on Timber Ridge Court, Lamacz said. Windows were blown out in the rear and front of the house above the garage.

The cause of the fire, reported at around 12:30 p.m., is under investigation by the state police fire marshal, Lamacz said.

Traffic on Route 130 was affected and black smoke could be seen in the area.

It took about 15 minutes to knock down the majority of the flames, Lamacz said. Fire crews were on scene for about two hours.

Firefighters faced some difficulty accessing the home because of a natural gas pipeline replacement being done along Route 130, he said. Timber Ridge Court is a residential cul de sac located off the state road and a township road.

Leigh Santo, who lives across the street, said she heard a “boom” just before 12:30 p.m. and saw flames on the lower portion of her neighbor’s house.

Ashley Weishaar, next door neighbor to the house, was in her laundry room when she saw a fire break out on her neighbors’ deck. She and her daughters grabbed leashes and went over to the home to retrieve their neighbors’ dog.

The dog received oxygen from a local EMS agency.

Numerous fire crews from Penn Township, Hempfield, Irwin, North Huntingdon, North Irwin and Jeannette assisted in putting out the fire.

Joe Napsha and Quincey Reese are TribLive staff writers. Joe can be reached at jnapsha@triblive.com. Quincey can be reached at qreese@triblive.com.