Two die in fire near Saxton
Two people died in a house fire before dawn Saturday on Broad Top Mountain Road near Dudley.
Authorities didn’t identify the pair, who were boyfriend and girlfriend, because there may be relatives left to notify, Huntingdon County Coroner Paul Sharum said.
The house, about 6 miles east of Saxton, was almost fully involved in fire when Saxton Volunteer Fire Company Chief Mark Taylor arrived after the 5:30 a.m. call, Taylor said.
Crews were sent in to search during the firefighting operation and found the bodies, Taylor said.
He declined to give details on where or how they were found in the one-story modular home.
He could provide no information on the fire’s cause, and said no one other than the victims were occupying the house when the fire occurred.
A state police fire marshal is investigating, Taylor said.
Autopsies will be performed at J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital in Huntingdon on Monday, Sharum said.
The autopsy results should enable Sharum to rule on the cause and manner of death, he said.
Firefighters were on scene for about four hours, Taylor said.
It has been several years since there was a fire fatality in the Saxton company’s territory, Taylor said. His firefighters seem to be doing OK, although the company may do a “critical incident stress debriefing,” he said.
“We just talk through what happened,” he said. “Make sure the responders are handling things.
“It’s a sad day,” Taylor said.