A stubborn fire in Brackenridge Wednesday evening left a family homeless, two businesses damaged and a pet iguana presumed dead. The fire began about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at 869 First Ave., a two-story block building at the corner of Locust Lane that houses Kaplan Trucking and TB Auto Service on the first floor and a rental apartment on the second. Jamie Blanchard, who lives upstairs with her boyfriend Travis Black, said Black was downstairs in his garage (TB Auto) when friends heard the smoke detector in the apartment. Blanchard said they're lucky Black wasn't alone working on a car with the radio blaring because he might not have heard the alarm. "It could have been a lot worse," she said as she wiped away tears. Pioneer Hose Assistant Chief George Skurko said the second floor was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived. "The second floor was one big ball of fire." Skurko said the second floor was gutted and the first sustained heavy water damage. No one was reported injured in the fire. A double roof made the fire extremely difficult to extinguish, Skurko said. Crews appeared to have doused the last hot spot about 10:15 p.m. "The fire was between the roofs," Skurko said. "It was very hard to get at." Intense smoke billowed from the roof for about an hour, rolling over Brackenridge Memorial Park across First Avenue and occasionally obscuring the block that includes the Brackenridge Hall high-rise. Officials from the Allegheny County Fire Marshal's office were investigating the fire late Wednesday. The cause was not known, but Skurko said there was no indication the blaze was suspicious. Skurko did not know who owned the building. Allegheny County property records listed Quinta and Richard Desiders of Brackenridge as the owners. Robert Michel, owner of Kaplan Trucking, waited in a neighboring parking lot to learn the severity of the damage to his 30-year-old business that dispatches trucks for Allegheny Ludlum. "It's out of my control," he said as he watched firefighters water down the building. "Everything I own for the business is in there." Kaplan, who also owns the Argonne Inn in Harrison, said he and his girlfriend, Edie Cressler, were in their nearby Brackenridge Avenue home washing dishes when they got a phone call about the fire. "I don't really know what happened," he said. "We'll try to rebuild." Blanchard, who wasn't home when the fire started, said she believed it began in her apartment but wasn't certain how. She said Black was able to rescue the couple's year-old black Labrador retriever, Luke, but Ivan the iguana likely didn't make it. "Everyone's asking if the dog is OK," Blanchard said with a weak laugh. "He's the neighborhood favorite. He's like my best friend." Blanchard said they'll likely stay with their parents until they find a place to live. Blanchard said they did not have insurance; Michel said the same. It's not know whether the building's owners were insured. Blanchard said one blessing is that her 9-year-old daughter, Jaidah Blanchard, had just returned home Wednesday from a two-month visit with her father and most of her belongings weren't inside. "We didn't have much, but it's all we had," Blanchard said of her home of about three years. "We're hoping a lot of the stuff in (Black's) business didn't get damaged." Skurko said Pioneer Hose was assisted by Tarentum's Eureka Fire Rescue EMS and Highland Hose of Tarentum and Harrison's Hilltop Hose.

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