1 person killed in West Deer Township house fire, officials say

One person died after a house fire in West Deer Township, Allegheny County, officials said Wednesday afternoon.

Firefighters were called to a home in the 100 block of Trump Road just before 11 a.m.

A spokesperson for the Allegheny County Department of Emergency Services later confirmed to KDKA-TV that one person had died as a result of the blaze. The victim's identity was not released on Wednesday night. The man's dog also died in the fire.

A neighbor who spoke with KDKA-TV said a man who lived inside the house was a Vietnam War veteran who suffers from a slight physical disability, and had trouble shoveling his driveway in the wake of the weekend snowfall, with the neighbor adding the man suffered another house fire in August 2025.

"We were getting reports that there was possibly someone inside," said West Deer No. 2 Fire Chief Anthony Creaturo. "The firefighters tried their best to make a push to get inside to do a primary search, but due to the heavy ammunition going off, that action was hampered." 

The neighbor said her husband was a trained firefighter, and he attempted to enter the home during the fire, trying to assist in any way he could.

"He was able to kick the second door down," Vicki Callendar said. "We heard nobody yelling and screaming. ... And then all the fireworks went off, which [were] guns, bullets exploding."

The county fire marshal is investigating the cause of the fire, which took hours to knock down.