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Mother, 2 Kids Rescued From McDonald House Fire

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MCDONALD (KDKA) - A mother and her two children had to be rescued from their burning home in Washington County Wednesday morning.

According to officials, the fire started at a home in the 100 block of North Street around 6:30 a.m.

Amber Coleman says it was a stranger knocking on the side of her house that woke her up. She saw flames on her back porch.

"I ran into the kitchen and the smoke and flames were coming in the door," Coleman said. "I panicked. Freaked out, got my kids out the window onto the roof of the front porch and waited for the ambulance, firetrucks to come."

Coleman's boyfriend helped get the kids out safely.

"He just dropped them down, I guess to the McDonald Police," Coleman said. "It was all so hectic, there were bystanders…somebody caught my kids."

Meanwhile, Coleman, who recently had knee surgery, waited on top of the porch, to be rescued.

"I had to wait for the fire departments to come and they put up two ladders and one of them stood on each ladder behind me and walked me down the ladder," she said.

The McDonald fire chief says the biggest challenge was getting to the fire on the second floor.

"The biggest challenge we had was getting to the second floor, because there's only one access which is the porch, where the fire started, which is all burned out. So it's not safe to go, so we had to the second floor via ladders and breaking windows," said Chief Terry Kerr.

The flames were so intense, they melted the siding of a neighboring home.

Coleman tearfully said she's lost everything.

"Everybody's okay and I'm just really overwhelmed," she said. "It's right before Christmas and all the Christmas presents were in the house, I'm just really overwhelmed."

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