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Pocono News Section
Elderly Woman Dies in Wilkes-Barre Fire
Elderly Woman Dies in Wilkes-Barre Fire - Friday, April 11, 2008 at 3:02PM EST
Reported by: Jill Konopka
Friday, Apr 11, 2008 @03:02pm EST
WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY- A fatal fire is under investigation after flames ripped through a home in the Parsons section of Wilkes-Barre. Firefighters pulled an elderly woman from the first floor, only after a teenage boy tried to save her.
Neighbor Matt Steinerman said, “I opened the door and I tried to go in and it was too hot and smoky."
78-year-old Eleanor Fassett was found inside her burning home on Kado Street in Wilkes-Barre. Neighbor Stephanie Carey spotted the fire and called 9-1-1. "I started to see smoke coming out of the gutters near the upstairs window and that’s when I woke my son up and I told him to go and check it," she said.
Sleepy and shoeless - Matt Steinerman bolted out of bed. "I was like crying because I didn't want her to die,” he said.
He ran to Fassett’s front door only to be stopped by smoke and flames. Neighbors watched closely - hanging on to hope for their elderly neighbor. "I went to check the back door and there's still black smoke. I saw a cat in front of the door dead so I came to the front and by that time the fire trucks were coming."
Once inside firefighters found several of Fassett's cats, also victims of the fire. Wilkes-Barre Assistant Fire Chief James Clarke said, "They had it knocked down and under control in a half hour. Unfortunately she was rushed to the hospital."
Neighbor Jeanine Carey said, "She didn't look conscious or anything. I couldn't tell if she was breathing or anything."
After the fatal fire was out- inspectors started sifting through the burned out building. A short time later Luzerne County detectives pulled in and secured a bag of evidence that may hold the answers to this fatal fire.
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