MCKEESPORT (KDKA) — Eleven people have been displaced after an apartment building fire in McKeesport.

According to officials at the scene, the fire started around 10:39 a.m. in the 1600-block of Evans Street. It was brought under control shortly after noon.

Three of the four units were occupied, but everyone was able to get out of the building safely.

“When we got here, we had brown-yellow smoke coming from every opening in the building,” says Deputy Firer Chief Don Sabol.

Debbie Snyder lived in apartment No. 4.

She’d gotten a call at her job at Eat ‘N Park from her husband, Frank.

“And he said, he said, ‘Our building’s on fire,’” she said.

Frank Snyder and a buddy were painting a downstairs hallway when the fire started. Frank uses oxygen tanks for his COPD.

Fearing they would blow, he managed to get one tank out, but failed trying to collect the second.

“And I couldn’t even get up the steps … and come down with my dog and started hollering for the lady that lives in apartment two,” he said.

It took two hours to bring the flames under control.

“It looks suspicious to us that we have fire in multiple levels,” Sabol said.

The Allegheny County Fire Marshal will make the final call on exactly what started it, but nothing can replace all that Debbie Snyder has lost.

“There’s nothing – everything’s gone – everything,” she said.

The Red Cross is helping three families – nine adults and two children – with food, clothing and shelter.

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