Woman killed, nearly 20 residents displaced in overnight Westmoreland County apartment fire
GREENSBURG, Pa. (KDKA) -- A woman is dead after an overnight fire at an apartment complex in Greensburg.
It happened at the Meadowview Apartments just after 1:30 a.m. on Friday morning, displacing more than a dozen residents.
The fire chief said it started in an apartment in the basement and while it remains under investigation, it's believed to have started in a chair in one of the tenant's living room.
The smell of smoke continues to linger outside of the Westmoreland County apartment complex after heavy black smoke filled parts of the building.
The Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department said the call came in as an automatic fire alarm but when crews arrived on the scene, no visible smoke or flames were found.
According to the chief, firefighters made their way to the basement, checking three of the apartments, when they found heavy smoke inside one of them.
Within less than two minutes, they were able to extinguish the flames.
That's when they found the victim, identified as 71-year-old Patricia Baylett, on her couch.
Chief Tom Bell said how the call came in made it challenging for crews to know where to go or who was still inside.
"The thing of it is, is trying to find it when you have multiple apartments and finding exactly where it's at," he said. "Knowing it was on the ground floor, but there's three apartments there, you're basically searching for a needle in the haystack until you can actually find out where it's coming from. If you don't have a door open and they're all closed, you have to finally open all three doors and find out where it's at."
The fire displaced 18 residents and restoration crews will be coming to clean and do air monitoring testing all in the hope that residents can return by Monday.