New Jersey woman unaccounted for after running into burning home for pets left behind, fire officials say

HILLSIDE, N.J. -- Just two days before Thanksgiving, a family in New Jersey is dealing with unimaginable pain.

One person is still unaccounted for, following a fire that tore through a home in Hillside.

A neighbor captured on video the devastating moment flames engulfed the home on Conant Street.

"It's a terrible fire," Dorian Guzman said.

The blaze broke out just after 3 a.m. on Tuesday. Fire officials said three members of the same family were able to escape, but that one of them, a woman, went back into the flames to save a pet.

"She went back inside to get the dog and she never come back out," friend Victor Manuel said.

"And, unfortunately, that was the last time the person was seen," Hillside Deputy Fire Chief Keith Ryan said at the scene.

Neighbors said it's just heartbreaking.

"Very good people. Very nice people," Manuel said.

Manuel said the home had been under renovations for weeks.

"They just finished doing some work on the house. The house is a beautiful house," he said.

Now, two days before Thanksgiving, fire investigators were combing through the charred structure and a burnt out car, trying to determine what caused the tragedy.

Authorities said the fire was so intense that, right now, they can't determine where the fire started.

Watch Christine Sloan's report

George Carreno identified the missing woman as his sister Edith.

The piles of charred rubble soaked in the rain Tuesday night.

"It's there, I know it's happened, but it's crazy," Carreno said.

As Carreno stood on his neighbor's porch, he still couldn't believe the wreckage was his home.

"I'm just getting through the night. I'll figure it out as I go along," he said.

When the fire broke at 3 a.m., he heard Edith yelling.

"'Wake up, there's a fire, get out of the house, call 911.' She said it twice," Carreno said.

He grabbed his shirt and jeans, and his elderly mother. His daughter followed and all got out, but his 46-year-old sister went to look for the family dog, Bailey.

"I called out for her, 'Edie, where are you?' No response. I wanted to go in there. If even a peep, I hear, 'I'm over here,' I would've ran in and took her out. But nothing," Carreno said.

Not a word from his sister as the fire engulfed the home, burning it to the ground, Bailey also inside. Their bodies have not been recovered.

"She was down there somewhere and she just never came out," Carreno said.

For Carreno, this heartbreak is a double-fold. After years of distance, he and his sister were just getting close, developing a deep family bond.

"She was fun. She liked to laugh. She liked to go out. She was happy-go-lucky," Carreno said.

And it was his sister, Carreno believes, who saved his life with those early morning screams, that in a strange way are giving him some comfort.

"Whatever it was she did in her life, she completed and it was just God's way of saying this is her time to go. You gotta hope to God that she's in the right place now," he said.

The family says crews will be back in the morning to dig through the rubble. While in their hearts they know where Edith is, they are hoping to find her.

In:
• New Jersey
• Hillside
• House Fire