Fire kills Monarch woman
MONARCH – A 65-year-old woman died in her bedroom early Tuesday after an electrical fire swept through her two-story home. Frances Carnack of 3511 Fifth St. was pronounced dead at 3:49 a.m., according to Elsie Dvorchak, chief assistant to Fayette County Coroner Dr. Phillip E. Reilly. The fire was first reported to the Fayette County 911 Center at 2:08 a.m.
Neighbor Scott Williams, a Monarch firefighter, was the first fireman to respond. After being awakened by his wife and informed of the fire, Williams said he ran out to his truck, threw on his gear, grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran across the street to the house. Williams said he tried to make entry twice but was pushed back by smoke and flames.
“I tried to make entry, but it was very hot and smoky,” Williams said.
Carnack was apparently trapped in her second-story bedroom and couldn’t escape. The bedroom is located in the front of the house. Dvorchak said Carnack was found on her bed. Her dog, an older cocker spaniel, also perished in the fire. Williams said the dog was found in another part of the house.
A 20-year veteran of the fire department, Williams said it was the first time there was ever a fatality in Monarch in a fire. He said the last fire in the small town was in December 1976, when the old Pechin Company store on Second Street burned to the ground.
Looking across the street at the burned out shell of the home, Williams said that Carnack had just remodeled the entire interior of the old home. “It’s gone, it’s a total loss,” he said.
Yellow fire tape was stretched around the exterior of the house, keeping onlookers at bay.
“It’s a shame. I feel bad for the family. She was just the nicest person in the world,” Williams said. Carnack, who lived alone, is the mother of one grown son.
Next-door neighbors Sylvia and Rudy Zerecheck, who have a son the same age as Carnack’s son, said they had just seen Carnack Monday tying up her tomato plants. “She was spry,” Sylvia Zerecheck said.
Sylvia Zerecheck said she was probably one of many people who called 911 after seeing the fire. She said that everyone on the street ran to help.
“What can we say, it was a tragedy, that’s all,” Sylvia Zerecheck said. “I knew Fran very well. After I saw the flames I knew she was in there, I didn’t want to be outside,” she said. “I just kept praying, let her get out, let her get out.”
Neighbors for nearly 30 years, Sylvia Zerecheck said she and Carnack were there for each other, although they weren’t the type of neighbors who visited. “Fran was a private person, but if she needed me I was there and she was there for me,” Sylvia Zerecheck said. “She was a good neighbor.”
Rudy Zerecheck said Carnack was self-sufficient and cut her own grass.
“She was the nicest person in the world. She did everything,” Williams said. “She treated everybody real nice and was like a grandmother to everybody.”
Williams said his wife and Carnack often walked to the post office together. “It’s a shame,” he said.
State police fire marshal Trooper John Marshall ruled that the fire was accidental/electrical in nature. He said that it began in the rear of the first floor of the home.
Dvorchak said there is no autopsy scheduled but blood work is being done to determine Carnack’s carbon monoxide level. The cause of death was asphyxiation due to carbon monoxide poisoning and inhalation of smoke and fumes.
According to the Fayette County 911 Center, crews remained on the scene until 9:21 a.m. Firefighters from Monarch, Dunbar, Morrell, South Connellsville, Connellsville Township and West Leisenring responded to the fire as well as Fayette EMS, the county coroner and state police.
Damage was estimated at $30,000.