Elderly Couple Killed After Fire Rips Through Elkins Park Home
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Pa. (CBS)—Two people are dead after a fire rips through a home in Elkins Park on Sunday morning.
It happened around 4:30 a.m. in the 600 block of Spring Ave.
Authorities say they were alerted to the fire by a neighbor smelling smoke.
"A 911 call from the neighbor who woke up smelling smoke looked out his front window and saw fire coming from the neighbor's house," said Cheltenham Deputy Fire Chief Timothy Shuck.
Shuck confirms an elderly couple in their 90s was found in the first floor of the fire-ravaged home.
Family members have identified the couple as Roy and Helen Finestone, both 98 years old.
Roy, who was an accountant, and his wife Helen were just getting ready to celebrate another anniversary, the family said.
"To actively see the house on fire was something I've never seen before," said Tracy Werner, a neighbor.
Werner says she would walk by the home often and chat with Helen.
"She was lovely… lovely," Werner, tearing up, said. "I've lived here for almost 20 years. They've lived here forever. So this is a tragedy in our neighborhood. This is very, very sad."
Shuck says it took more than 150 firefighters two hours to get the blaze under control, a challenge made tougher by the home's balloon-frame construction.
"The roof is collapsed into there, there's a lot of debris in the area. The fire then through the open doorways got into the interior of the house and up the walls," Schuck said.
Dr. Aaron Hasiuk, a neighbor, says he walked out of his home to the smell of smoke.
"It's such a terrible thing," Hasiuk said.
Fire officials are still investigating and say it's still too early to tell what may have sparked it.