4 people taken to the hospital from Dunbar Township overnight house fire
Four people were taken to the hospital overnight following a house fire that broke out in Dunbar Township, Fayette County.
The fire broke out along Miles Road just before 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
A Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson told KDKA-TV that all four people, three family members and a caretaker, were trapped in the home when the fire started and were pulled out by first responders.
Three of the people were flown from the scene by medical helicopter and one was transported by medics in an ambulance.
Officials told KDKA-TV that the mother remains in critical condition and the father and son have been upgraded to stable condition.
"It could have been worse," said resident and relative of the victims, Richard Basinger, who lives near where the fire broke out.
He says he was awakened shortly after 2 a.m. by the sound of the medical helicopter that landed in a nearby field.
He raced out of his house to see what was going on, never imagining it would be someone he knew.
"I came down here and found out it was my cousin."
At first, Basinger says, he couldn't get any details from firefighters about his family. He couldn't even get close enough to the house to see what was going on.
All he knew was that his three cousins, Bill, Diane, and their handicapped son, Toby Woods, along with a caretaker, were trapped inside the burning home.
"I was hoping they [were] alive," he said. "They had to get them all out. They had to crawl on the floor to get away from the smoke, but they made it out."
Several fire departments responded to the scene Wednesday morning but have yet to release an initial cause and origin of the fire.
Basinger said the mother and son were both on oxygen, and he believes there was an explosion because someone may have been smoking.
"They've been told not to smoke. It's their own fault. You can't stop them," Basinger said.
KDKA-TV reached out to the fire department, who said the fire is still under investigation.
