House fire in Hollsopple determined to be accidental

HOLLSOPPLE ― A residential structure fire early Sunday afternoon along route 403 in Conemaugh Township was determined to be accidental, according to Jerome Volunteer Fire Chief Russell Miller.

According to Somerset County 911 records, fire crews were dispatched at 12:51 p.m. for a working fire on one side of a duplex in the 900 block of South Main Street.

Miller said the fire started in the wall on the outside of the back porch and went up the wall, gaining access to the inside of the house. Smoke was visible from the eaves of the home when the firemen arrived on scene.

"Crews got here really quick and had a really good attack on it," he said, estimating that the firemen had it knocked down in about 10 minutes.

Miller said the renter on the affected side was alerted to the fire by a neighbor and got out of the house. The family living on the other side was not at home and no one was injured in the fire, he said.

An eight-week-old puppy was rescued from the home and resuscitated by John Chipchosky, an emergency medical technician with the Conemaugh Township EMS, and Jerome Deputy Chief Ginger Miller, according to a social media post on the EMS service's Facebook page.

Russell Miller said the affected side sustained smoke and water damage; most of the damage was to the second floor because firefighters had to get into the walls to reach the fire. He said they couldn't pinpoint an exact cause because of the extent of the damage, but added that it was not suspicious.

The other side of the duplex was not damaged, he said.

In addition to Jerome, fire crews from Conemaugh Township, Windber, Hooversville, Scalp Level-Paint, Boswell, Sipesville, Richland (Cambria) and the Conemaugh Township EMS responded. Russell Miller said the firefighters also had to deal with heat exhaustion and were rotated out regularly. Both lanes of Route 403 were shut down while the firefighters were working on the fire.

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: House fire in Hollsopple determined to be accidental