HONESDALE, Pa. — The smell of charred wood still lingered in the air more than a day after crews were dispatched just before 2 a.m. Thursday for a large amount of smoke along West Park Street in Honesdale.
"Our units arrived and found a house on fire, the rest of the department was dispatched to assist. We had a working fire smoke showing from the rear of the building. We stretched numerous lines and used a fire hydrant," said Deputy Chief Brian Dulay, Honesdale Fire Department.
It took hours of battling the fire before Deputy Chief Brian Dulay could say the scene was under control.
It was then he says that crews entered the home to discover someone was inside.
"The house did have a fair amount of contents in it, so we did a primary search of the structure, and later in the morning, we did locate a victim," said Deputy Chief Dulay.
The Wayne County coroner's office identified the victim as 64-year-old Kathleen Donahue. She died at the scene.
Officials say Donahue lived alone in the home where she had grown up.
Deputy Chief Dulay says Thursday morning's fatal fire posed some issues; the house is along a busy stretch of road and is almost completely camouflaged in thick vegetation.
"Even in the middle of the night, there is a lot of truck traffic that makes its way through town. We had the road shut down for numerous hours while we operated, the home was a little bit overgrown, so we did have to work around that as we extinguished the blaze," explained Deputy Chief Dulay.
Dulay says no firefighters were injured.
After an autopsy was completed Saturday, the Wayne County coroner determined that Kathleen Donahue died from breathing in too much smoke.
A state police fire marshall is still investigating the cause of the fire.
See news happening? Text our Newstip Hotline.