PITTSBURGH — A car caught fire and ended up crashing into a fence in Pittsburgh’s Knoxville neighborhood on Wednesday morning.
Just before 6 a.m., Pittsburgh police responded to a reported crash at the intersection of Knox and Moore avenues. Officers arrived to find a vehicle that had collided with a fence and was engulfed in flames, according to a police press release.
Witnesses told investigators they saw several teens run from the car before boarding a bus. Police said officers identified the teens but they were released ‘pending investigation’.
The crash left behind charred dirt, soot and a damaged fence outside a nearby home. Everett Lauffenburger, who lives at the house, said the flames reached as high as the second floor of the residence.
“One of the scariest ways to wake up, I can imagine,” Lauffenburger said.
Surveillance video from Lauffenburger’s home showed a red sedan already on fire before it turned and crashed into the fence. As many as seven teens can be seen getting out of the vehicle before running away.
“It was terrifying. I was really worried that it was going to spread all the way to the house,” Lauffenburger said. “You know, I’ve got a pet inside and he ran and hid. I couldn’t find him, so I wasn’t able to get him out.”
Lauffenburger said the flames intensified after the crash.
“I was having a million nightmares a second watching the flames go up,” he said.
Another nearby resident said smoke from the fire filled nearby homes.
“In some ways, I feel like I’m still not really processing everything that happened,” said Lauffenburger.
Neighbors said they hope the crash draws attention to safety concerns in the area and leads the city to consider adding cameras along the street.
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