Woman dies in multi-structure fire in New Kensington

Thick smoke and rolling flames swept through a New Kensington duplex Sunday, killing one woman before it spread to a neighboring building.

Crews spent hours dousing the blaze at a home on Fourth Avenue, a battle compounded by strong winds and little space between buildings.

“There was a lot of smoke, visibility was almost zero and there was a heck of a wind coming out of the southwest, which did not help things at all,” New Kensington fire Chief Ed Saliba Jr. said.

New Kensington police and state police fire marshals are investigating the cause of the blaze.

The Westmoreland County coroner office Monday morning identified the woman who died as Angel A. Gray, 49.

Resident Bob Gray identified the woman as his wife .

“My best friend, the love of my life, passed away today. I don’t know how I’m going to live,” he said.

Gray said Sunday was his 50th birthday. He and Angel were at a friend’s home down the street celebrating, but his wife went home, he said, because she was tired.

He said when he came out of his friend’s home a little while later, his home was fully engulfed in flames. Gray said he tried to run into the home, but a police officer held him back.

Saliba said the call for the fire came a few minutes before 6 p.m.

He said city police were at the home within minutes and tried to pull the woman out of the house.

“The heat was intense, and the smoke was unbearable,” Saliba said. “The smoke was to the floor.”

An assistant fire chief pulled the woman out, but she was already dead, he said.

Saliba said the home’s construction didn’t help, calling it an older wood-frame building that had only 2 feet between it and the duplex next to it. There also was very little space between it and the three-story brick building on the other side.

Both the brick building and the neighboring duplex were vacant, he said, as was the other side of the duplex, where the fire started.

Flames spread to the brick building — a vacant doctor’s office — and rolled from back to front, eventually shooting through the edges of the roof. The roof collapsed, Saliba said, sending bricks and debris falling to the ground. He said several firefighters narrowly missed being struck.

Bob Gray said he and his wife had been married for 30 years, and she would have turned 50 this month.

“We were going to be 50 together,” Gray said. “That was my heart and soul.”

Peggy Snyder also identified the victim as Angel Gray. Snyder also lives on Fourth Avenue. She said she heard police and fire sirens and walked outside to see her friend’s home ablaze.

“Angel — I can’t say enough about her,” Snyder said. “It really hurts to think that she’s gone.”

She said the Grays are her best friends.

“Now to think that she’s gone, never to ever see her again — she had the right name, Angel,” Snyder said. “She is an angel.”