Renatta Signorini
Tribune-Review, Greensburg, Pa.
(TNS)
Mar. 20—A father and his four children died in an overnight blaze in Jeannette while two more children and their mother were rescued from the flames and hospitalized.
Investigators were at the scene on Guy Street for hours Wednesday to recover the five bodies, sifting through what was left of the home where all eight lived. Jeannette fire Chief Bill Frye and Westmoreland County Coroner Tim Carson said authorities had to take their time, at first digging out debris by hand and later with an excavator in an effort to locate the bodies in the rubble.
They were identified as: Tyler J. King, 27; Kyson, 7; Kinzleigh, 6; Keagan, 3; and Korbyn, 1 month.
“Emotions are definitely raw,” Carson said. “You got kids’ toys and stuff thrown throughout the yard, it definitely takes its toll on you.”
King’s mother Delena Lewis said her son, who has a twin brother, was a loving family man.
“My son was a very hard worker and he changed his life whenever he had his kids,” she said.
Her grandchildren loved to play outside and with their cousins.
“They loved being around their mom and dad,” Lewis said.
The fire call came in at 12:02 a.m. with reported entrapment. Neighbor Jack Mull said he went outside to have a cigarette when he saw the home’s front porch in flames.
He saw the mother standing on the roof of the home, screaming about her kids. He grabbed a ladder.
Police and firefighters arrived and Mull worked with the firefighters and officers Bryan DeFelice, Matt Painter and Jacob Fazekas and Sgt. Jim Phillips to rescue the woman and two children.
“The mother, she just didn’t want to give up,” Mull said, adding the flames were spreading and she was trying to go back inside. “It’s the worst thing you could ever imagine, knowing they were in there.”
Mull described them as a good, loving family.
“It just makes you sick in the stomach,” he said.
Firefighters initially had issues with a hydrant at the intersection of Guy and Second streets.
“The hydrant wasn’t giving us enough water to make it up the hill,” Frye said.
Firefighters had to call a second alarm to get five additional tanker trucks to the scene as a result.
“That’s when we were able to get sufficient water to bring the fire under control,” he said. “”By the point we got water, the main house was already collapsing.”
The flames damaged a neighboring home about five feet away. The occupants were able to get out safely. The blaze also damaged sections of fire hose, Jeannette’s ladder truck and other neighboring homes. A Jeannette firefighter suffered a broken elbow in a fall and was taken to a hospital, Frye said.
“The radiant heat was crazy,” he said.
By Wednesday morning, all that remained of the home were two brick porch supports and a brick fireplace. The neighboring home looked like it had been cut in half by the fire.
Smoke wafted up as investigators worked. State police fire marshals are investigating the cause. Rulings on the cause and manner of death for King and the children are pending.
Shawnee Riggar said King, her grandson, spent a lot of time together with his twin brother’s family.
“We loved him, he was always talking about the children, he loved them,” she said.
Jeannette City School District Superintendent Matt Jones said the children were students in the district.
Counselors, social workers and other support staff are being made available to students in school buildings, he said. Any parent or guardian whose child needs support is asked to contact a school counselor.
Mayor Curtis Antoniak visited the scene and talked with police and firefighters. He planned to follow up with Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County about concerns regarding the fire hydrant.
Frye said firefighters used the hydrant at Guy and Second in 2017 to extinguish a blaze at a neighboring home that has since been replaced.
“We ran three lines and fought a pretty well involved fire that day with no issues with that one hydrant,” he said. “So I asked (the authority) to investigate to see if there was any obstructions or maintenance issues with the hydrant.”
Renatta Signorini is a TribLive reporter covering breaking news, crime, courts and Jeannette. She has been working at the Trib since 2005. She can be reached at rsignorini@triblive.com.
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