Survivor Of Deadly House Fire Lost Her Family Members And Home
By Justin Udo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- Two people are dead and a family is without a home as a result of a house fire that broke out early Saturday morning in Philadelphia (See previous story).
The fire at 1513 North 6th Street had been out for hours, but all that Jacqueline Watson could do was sit across the street and look at what remains of the house that her family had called home for the last 50 years.
"I was in my bedroom," Watson said. "I heard the smoke alarm. I smelled smoke in the hallway in my niece's bedroom, which is the bedroom that that was on fire. I opened the door and I saw the fire."
Watson says the fire was moving rapidly throughout the house. It claimed the life of her sister Gwendolyn, 69, and her 5-year-old nephew Lamar.
"It's one thing to lose a house," she said, "but to lose my sister and my nephew at the same time, it's too much. It's just too much."
Watson says there were five other people in the house at the time of the fire. They all made it out safely.
Crews responded to the fire just after midnight. When they arrived on the scene, officials say heavy smoke was seen on the second and third floors.
Both victims of the blaze were pronounced dead around 12:30 am.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.