Locals Help Elderly Woman Living In Crumbling House, Without Heat
McKEES ROCKS (KDKA) – There are few words to describe much of what was found in a local woman's McKees Rocks home.
It's a home filled with hazards, where the 85-year-old woman could die.
"When you look at her, I see my grandmother in her," said friend Anthony Braunstein. "I would not ever want anybody in my family – especially grandparents – living in a place like this."
Inside the house, Braunstein found collapsed ceilings, buckled walls and horrid conditions when he delivered a refrigerator in a home so cold, the refrigerator broke.
"The first one broke," he said. "I'm told it was so cold in here, it wasn't able to operate."
That leads to the other major problem: there is no heat, nor working furnace.
"I have an electric blanket," the homeowner said.
She did not want to be identified, but says it's been two or three years since she had working heat. She also didn't want to show KDKA's Marty Griffin where she sleeps or where she stores her food – in a pantry that collapsed a year ago.
Listen to friend Anthony Braunstein on NewsRadio 1020 KDKA:
Anthony Braunstein
She says she's one of many people who find themselves in a predicament they can't find a way out of.
"Yeah, that's right," she said. "I didn't know what to do. I was sick and I don't know what to do."
Enter: Bob Tudi. Tudi's an HVAC man with a heart as big as McKees Rocks. His business has given away nearly 200 new furnaces to people in need over the years.
"There is a lot of need Marty," he told Griffin. "There's need in places where you wouldn't think that people are living, you will see this all the time."
His crews and some other crews will soon show up to provide heat and whatever else it takes.
"I just think people get themselves into hard times and they don't know how to get out," Tudi said.
Anthony Braunstein
The woman living in the house is expected to have heat in her home as early as Thursday.
They're also helpful to get contractors in the home just as fast to fix her roof and ceilings.
In the meantime, she has no interest in staying anywhere other than the home she has lived in for 85 years.
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