Sisters Jump From Roof To Escape House Fire in Lower Providence
By Todd Quinones
LOWER PROVIDENCE Twp., Pa., (CBS) – Twin sisters were trapped by fire and smoke on the second floor of a Montgomery County home Thursday night.
With no other option, they had to go out a window and jump off the roof.
By the time firefighters arrived there was little they could do -- the flames shot up right through the roof.
The fast-moving fire engulfed much of the home on Hildebidle Drive and trapped two 12-year-old sisters on the second floor.
They were forced to go through a window and onto the roof below.
"I heard screaming and the two girls came out of the bedroom window and were on the roof," neighbor Stew McCaly said.
He was one of several neighbors who ran to help before firefighters arrived.
"The smoke coming out the back window it was, I've never seen anything like it," McCaly said.
"When we went around back you could feel the heat," he said.
It was just before 5:30 p.m. when another neighbor Mark Feverston and an unidentified man actually caught one of the twin sisters as she jumped from the roof. The other sister, Eyewitness News is told jumped into some bushes.
Feverston wasn't home, but we talked to his son.
"They're I think fortunate that he was here. It's a shame that it happened, but I'm glad he was here for that," Jeff Feverston said.
The girls' father was outside the home. Once the girls were safe, neighbors struggled, but couldn't keep him from going back through a window to save his pet gerbils.
"If he just fell in that window, he pulled all the glass down and I thought he was going to cut himself," McCaly said.
The Red Cross arrived on the scene to help the family.
"Our role tonight is to be sure the family has shelter and food and clothing for the next few days," Captain of the Western Montgomery Disaster Assistance Terry O'Hara said.
Neighbors says the twins and their dad did not appear to be seriously injured, but they were taken to the hospital to be evaluated and treated for possible smoke inhalation.
The Fire Marshall was on the scene to try and determine a cause.
