PLAINS, Pa. — Flames heavily damaged a double-block home in Plains Township Monday morning.
It started around 11 a.m. at 50/52 Skidmore Street. Smoke from the fire could be seen for miles.
One person was at home but was able to get out safely.
Firefighters broke windows as they tried to save the red home on Skidmore Street in Plains Township from a fire that started next door.
Angie Brown calls this place home and was devastated when she saw the destruction.
"I was coming home for lunch. I usually get home a half-hour earlier, but I was busy working. And my boss says he asked me where I lived, and I told him. He said, 'I think your house is on fire.' I said, 'Of course it is. With the year I'm having, why wouldn't it be?' And as soon as I saw the flames, I knew, I just knew, and I couldn't get here fast enough," Brown said.
"We were in the building. We were in the attic, and when we see that conditions are getting bad and there's a possibility of a collapse, we hit the air horn, and that's to clear everyone out of the building," explained Plains Township Fire Chief Mark Ritsick.
The chief said he was surprised how much the fire destroyed before crews were called to the scene. He says once all the people were out, they got what pets they could get out and focused on an outside approach to contain the fire.
The victims tell us five chihuahuas are still unaccounted for.
"I don't know what happened. I always make sure when I leave for the day, every day that I leave, I shut everything off. I open the window, the curtain so that dogs have light. And then I go to work, and I tell them I'll see them at lunch, and now there's no seeing them at lunch," Brown said.
"It's been a bad year," said fire victim Frank Levandoski. "I just lost my daughter last year. She was shot and killed over there in Wyoming. Tara, that was my daughter."
Levandoski's daughter was the victim of a homicide last year.
Crews from Plains Township, Jenkins Township, and Kingston were called in to fight the fire.
The chief said it will be hard to determine the cause with so much damage.
Family members tell us they will be setting up a donation fund for the victims.
One donation fund has been set up for a woman who lived on the right side of the double-block.