6 in family die in fierce McKeesport house fire
James Grimes toed at the bloody footprints on his concrete porch, which he believed a desperate Keith Egenlauf left there Saturday as he sought help for a fire that ravaged his McKeesport home and killed his father, wife and four stepchildren.
“He was gone before I got to the door, so I just cracked it a little,” said next-door neighbor Grimes, 31. “I saw the blood, but I didn't hear anything. There wasn't a smell. I wish I'd woken up. I wish I'd done something. By the time I woke up my mom and came outside, Keith was gone and fire was coming out of the upstairs windows.”
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office has not identified the victims, but family members said they were Ronald Egenlauf, 56; Hope Egenlauf, 27; and her four children, Dominic Jordan, 7; Autumn Jordan, 6; Serenity Jakub, 3; and Victoria Jordan, 2. The office said autopsies were scheduled for Sunday.
“I just want someone to tell us this is all a dream,” said Keith Egenlauf's aunt, Donna Ackerman, 53, of McKeesport, breaking down in tears.
Investigators said the fire off the 300 block of Express Alley is one of the worst in recent memory.
It struck as the four children were together. Two children were in foster care through Allegheny County Office of Children, Youth and Families and were visiting for the weekend, family members said. Keith and Hope Egenlauf had just regained custody of the other children within the past two weeks.
Family members did not offer specifics on why the children were under CYF supervision. Court records were not available Saturday.
“All I want to do is hold her in my arms,” Andrew Jakub, 26, of McKeesport said of Serenity, his daughter with Hope Egenlauf.
Ronald Egenlauf used a wheelchair as a result of several strokes about six years ago, Ackerman said, and Keith and Hope Egenlauf, who married in December, cared for him.
Keith Egenlauf, 23, remained in critical condition in UPMC Mercy, said his mother, Laverne Egenlauf, of McKeesport. She said he suffered burns over 55 percent of his body, including his hands, feet, torso and scalp.
“He was black and screaming on the gurney, ‘They're gone. I've lost my family. They're all gone,' ” said neighbor Beth Walsh, 50, who heard Egenlauf's first pleas for help and later saw him being treated by medics. “I've never seen anything like that.”
First responders found fierce flames as they arrived shortly after 6:45 a.m. A security guard at a nearby garage had spotted the fire and dialed 911.
“With this home being fully engulfed when firefighters arrived, there unfortunately was nothing they could do to save the individuals inside,” said McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko.
The fire started on the first floor and gutted the two-story, wooden frame rental home, said Allegheny County Emergency Services Director Alvin Henderson Jr. Determining a cause could take days or weeks, he said.
The Tribune-Review could not identify the owner through county property records.
Former resident Raeanna Argyle, 26, tugged at a Steelers sweater as she watched emergency crews sift through the blackened remnants of her childhood home.
“My family was there for — God, I don't know — close to 20 years,” Argyle said.
“We made good memories here,” she said, “but we were always afraid of something like this.”
The turn-of-the-century clapboard house lacked insulation and modern wiring when they lived there, she said. Winters were drafty, siblings Tracy and Tonya Argyle said, and their family used kerosene to keep warm.
Tracy said his family bought smoke detectors. Walsh said the Egenlaufs told her that there were no smoke detectors in the house.
Laverne Egenlauf, who is separated from her husband, said her son tried to rescue his father from the first floor of the home, while Hope Egenlauf got to her children. The mother and children were found in an upstairs bedroom, Henderson said; firefighters found Ronald Egenlauf on the first floor.
The family dog, a pit bull named Lucius, perished.
Family members said the bloody footprints throughout the neighborhood came from Keith Egenlauf as he searched for help. Henderson said that was possible.
“It's tough on all first responders,” Henderson said. “Many of us are fathers, grandfathers, godfathers. This hits home for us.”
Critical Incident Stress Management Team members, health professionals from throughout the county, were at the scene to support family and emergency personnel, he added.
As word of the fire spread, family members rushed to the scene. While investigators worked to remove bodies from the house, relatives clung to one another, wiping away tears.
Tom McPherson, 44, of Elizabeth saw early television broadcasts of the blaze that killed his half-sister. The house looked familiar, he said, but he was just waking up.
“It didn't hit me until my mom called an hour later screaming, ‘That's Hope,' ” McPherson said. “She'd just had a custody hearing (Friday). The court needed her to find a stable home before she could get all the kids back, and she had. Well, we thought she had.”
No one in the house had insurance, family members said, so they were unsure how they would pay for burials or Egenlauf's medical expenses.
The tragedy is not the Egenlauf family's first brush with fire.
Ronald Egenlauf ran into a burning home nearly 30 years ago to save his stepdaughter, Tammy Warman. Both survived, but Egenlauf still bore the burn scars on his hands, feet and torso.
“Father and son. Matching scars,” Ackerman said.
“(Ronald) always told me that he'd never survive another fire,” Laverne Egenlauf said of her husband.
Bill Vidonic and Megan Harris are staff writers for Trib Total Media. Staff writer Jennifer R. Vertullo contributed to this report.
