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Woman Killed In New Kensington House Fire

By: Shelley Bortz

NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. (KDKA) - A woman was killed in a house fire in New Kensington.

An autopsy will be performed Tuesday on 49-year-old Angel Gray to determine her cause and manner of death. Before she died, she was at her husband's 50th birthday party.

Bob Gray said they were celebrating at a neighbor's house before the fire broke out. He said Angel went home early because she was tired, and not long after, their house was engulfed in flames.

The fire broke out just before 6 p.m. Sunday at the three-story home on Fourth Avenue. The New Kensington fire chief said flames tore through the roof of the house and quickly spread to the vacant homes on either side. When firefighters arrived and entered the home, they say the heat was intense and the smoke was to the floor and unbearable.

"The fire was a fast-moving fire," Chief Ed Salina said.

"Me and my son wanted to fly in there, but they wouldn't let us in there, she was my best friend," Bob Gray said.

"I broke down, I flipped out," Clarissa Thom, Angel's sister, said. "She's my only sister, my only family member I have left. My father passed away 19 years ago, and then we just buried my mom on Feb. 1, and now my sister."

"She's gone, never to be seen again. She had the right name, Angel, she is an angel," friend Peggy Snyder said.

Angel and her husband have two children in their 20s and Angel would have turned 50 on Friday.

The state police fire marshal and New Kensington Police are investigating the fire.

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