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1 hospitalized for burns after fire at Squirrel Hill apartment building

PITTSBURGH — One person was hospitalized after an apartment building fire Tuesday morning in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, officials said.

PHOTOS: Fire at Squirrel Hill apartment building

Flames broke out shortly before 4:30 a.m. in a third-floor apartment at Murray Towers on Murray Avenue, fire officials said.

“I didn't see a thing. It was wall-to-wall smoke,” Linda DeLabar, who lives on the third floor and escaped with her service dog, said.

Residents of the building were evacuated while firefighters worked to put out the fire. A Port Authority of Allegheny County bus was brought in for people to stay warm.

DeLabar said her friend lives in the apartment where the fire started and she tried to get him to safety after hearing screams for help.

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“He kept saying, ‘Help me. Help me. I'm here.’ And I said, ‘Come on here.’ He actually grabbed me. I grabbed him,” DeLabar said. “I was trying to pull him to the stairwell. We were at the stairwell when I lost him, and I went down the steps and told the firemen where he was.”

A man who suffered minor burns and smoke inhalation was found in a stairwell, Pittsburgh Fire Chief Darryl Jones said. He was taken to UPMC Mercy Hospital and is expected to be OK.

Paramedics evaluated a woman at the scene for smoke inhalation, officials said. She was not taken to a hospital.

Residents, with the exception of those who live on the third floor, were able to return to their apartments about 6:30 a.m.

While the fire was contained to the one apartment, there is extensive smoke damage on the third floor, officials said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

 

Cox Media Group

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