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Early Morning Vandergrift Fire Spreads To Nearby Homes, Displaces Several People

VANDERGRIFT, Pa. (KDKA) -- About a dozen people were displaced from their homes following an early morning fire on Tuesday in Westmoreland County.

The fire started in the 100 block of Custer Avenue in Vandergrift around 2 a.m.

Vandergrift Fire
(Photo Credit: Lindsay Ward)

The fire started on the front porch of the home. The homeowner tells KDKA that the flames went straight up and inside the home, then spread to neighboring homes.

Jaimie Confer was able to salvage something very special to her.

"My mom's Bible," she said.

It was found under rubble in her front yard, dirty and slightly damaged, but it made it. Other items like bicycles and furniture, did not.

Confer says it was a friend who woke her up, telling her the house was on fire.

"Sheer panic and we were trying to put water on it," said Confer.

But she says it wasn't working and the flames kept spreading. She managed to get her two kids out of the house and grab her phone to call 911.

"My daughter, poor thing, I had to borrow a shirt from her neighbor because she's just in her sports bra and shorts," said Confer.

Stacey Troup lives next door.

"As soon as I open my front door, I saw flames coming from the house next door, and then we just got out," Stacey Troup, a neighbor, said. "You see these flames and it's like the cops say, get out of the house and take whatever you want. What do you take? Ya know? All I was thinking, get my husband and I out of the house, and making sure everybody was safe."

Vandergrift Fire
(Photo Credit: KDKA Photojournalist Brian Smithmyer)

Her house sustained minor damage. The other two homes, according to the fire chief, were more severe.

The house where the fire started is a total loss; and the one next to it, a duplex, is heavily damaged.

"We couldn't thank them enough for their quick response. I mean this could've been a lot worse," said Troup.

Sixty fire personnel from seven companies were called out to help battle the blaze.

Around a dozen people were impacted, and the Red Cross is helping them. No one was hurt.

The cause is under investigation.

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