MEYERSDALE, Pa. — Three people were killed early Monday in a fire in Somerset County, 911 dispatchers told Channel 11 News.
Firefighters were called to Maple Valley Road in Meyersdale shortly after 2 a.m. The fire department remained on the scene several hours later.
“I looked down over the hill and there must've been about 10 firetrucks down there,” Nancy Bucy, a neighbor, said.
The victims were identified as Lugene Albright, 55, Jimmy Jo Christner, 31, and Sarah Marie Bottorff, 22.
“I was amazed it was their house. It really shocked me, it really did. They were people just trying to make it,” Bucy said.
Albright lived in the home with her stepson, Christner. Bottorff was Christner's girlfriend.
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Albright’s mother, Janet Keyser, said her daughter took care of Christner since he was 7 years old.
“It just breaks my heart to think they're gone, because he looked out for her, and she couldn't have loved him any more than if he was her own child. It's so hard for me to understand how or why things happen,” Keyser said.
Albright has two children of her own and three grandchildren. Eight dogs, a cat and a bird also died in the fire.
“I know that now she has no more worries, no more pain or heartache, and that J.J. is with her and the critters are with her. She loved them,” Keyser said. “Remember her for being the good person that she was, the love in her heart and she knew God. We had that understanding for a long, long time,” Keyser said of her daughter.
Keyser said her daughter always had a fire escape plan and that the tragedy is hard to comprehend.
“In my heart it just kills me because we just talked about detectors, and she had a lot of them,” Keyser said. “I want to know what caused that fire. I want to know. Something just doesn't lay right in my heart.”
A state police fire marshal is investigating.
“You're talking about two separate families affected -- son and mother and girlfriend. Horrible for this community to undergo this,” Tpr. Steve Limani said.