Mother, children rescued
SALTLICK TWP. – A next-door neighbor and an unknown passerby rescued a mother and her two young sons from the back porch roof of their burning house near Indian Head Wednesday morning. The fire destroyed Rachel and Bennett Campbell’s house on Indian Creek Valley Road (Route 711), but friends and family are happy that Rachel, 24, and the Campbell’s two boys, Nathan, 4, and Logan, 1, are all right.
“Praise God that they weren’t hurt bad,” said Rachel’s father, Ron Pletcher.
Nathan and Logan were released from Excela Frick Hospital in Mount Pleasant, but Rachel ws being kept overnight for observation due to smoke inhalation, Pletcher said.
Smoke from the burning two-story house brought numerous neighbors to the scene including Mary Jo Haines, who called 9-1-1 from her house next door around 8:30 a.m.
She didn’t stop there.
After seeing Rachel on the porch roof, Haines said he retrieved a ladder from her garage.
Just then, a young man driving a white Jeep Cherokee stopped and asked if she needed help.
“He climbed up the ladder and handed the boys down to me then helped Rachel down,” Haines said.
“They got a ladder and got them down,” said Max Gales, Saltlick Township Volunteer Fire Department chief.
However, Haines said she lost track of the young man and didn’t see him leave in the flurry of activity as fire trucks began arriving and neighbors continued scurrying around trying to help.
“I don’t know who he was. He’s a young guy with dark hair and a white Jeep. Like that,” Haines said as a white Cherokee drove past the house.
Several relatives and friends said the young man deserves thanks for what he did.
“That’s the thing about living up here – everybody helps everybody out,” Pletcher said.
Kim Geyer, a relative who came to try to help, injured her knee when she fell in a parking lot across the street. She was taken to the hospital and received stitches to close the wound.
Gales said the fire appeared to have started on the first floor, but state police fire marshals are investigating to determine the cause.
He said firefighters managed to knock down the fire in 30 to 45 minutes, but the home was extensively damage from the fire, smoke and heat.
In addition to the township’s fire department, seven fire departments from Fayette, Westmoreland and Somerset counties responded to the fire. They were Normalville, Springfield Township, Connellsville Township, Chestnut Ridge, Mount Pleasant, Ligonier and New Centerville.