Intense heat stops rescuers desperate to save two children
A fast-moving fire claimed the lives of two children and injured a woman and two other children early yesterday in Waynesburg, despite a police officer's effort to save them all, authorities said.
Waynesburg Patrolman Brian Tennant saw fire and smoke coming from the house on Richhill Street and heard screams coming from the rear when he got out of his cruiser. He persuaded a woman and two girls to jump into his arms but said the fire was too intense for him to get inside to bring the others out.
"Anything involving the death of children is the toughest call you're ever going to have," said police Chief Timothy Hawfield.
The fire, near the Waynesburg University campus, killed Noah Havrilesko, 11, and Ava Holbert, 13, Greene County Deputy Coroner Mary Lewis said. It started about 5 a.m., and authorities were searching for a cause.
For many in the community of about 4,100 people, the fire was a horrible reminder of a Feb. 17, 2007, fire that killed a woman and six children ages 2 to 10 in nearby Franklin Township.
"It's even the same time of year," said District Attorney Marjorie J. Fox, who lives across the street from the house destroyed yesterday.
Central Greene School District Superintendent Jerome F. Bartley said the district would provide counseling today for grieving students.
Noah Havrilesko, a fifth-grader at Waynesburg Central Elementary, lived in the three-story, wood-frame home with his mother, Stacey Havrilesko, 37, and sisters, Abbigale, 14, and Anna, 7. Holbert, from nearby Mt. Morris, spent the weekend with Abbigale, her friend and classmate at Margaret Bell Miller Middle School, friends and neighbors said.
Stacey Havrilesko and her daughters climbed to a porch roof, where Tennant found them. They were treated at Southwest Regional Medical Center in Waynesburg for minor burns and smoke inhalation, said a spokesman for the American Red Cross, which was assisting the Havrileskos.
The three crawled through a second-story window onto a slanted roof over the back porch, about 9 feet off the ground. Tennant said he caught the girls when they jumped, but their mother was reluctant to jump without all the children safely out.
"She was up there yelling, 'They're still in there; they're still in there.' She kept trying to go back inside, but the flames and smoke were too much," Tennant said. He tried to go in through the front door, but flames and smoke forced him back.
Mark Bouchard, who lives across the street, raced over to help. "Even where I was standing, the heat was unbearable," Bouchard said.
Firefighters contained the fire in less than two hours but couldn't get into the home because it was unstable, said Waynesburg-Franklin Township fire Chief Jeff Marshall. A contractor worked until early afternoon, tearing down walls and removing parts of the roof so that firefighters could get inside.
They discovered Ava's body under debris about 1 p.m. and Noah's body an hour later. It wasn't clear where in the home the children were.
"She was such a happy-go-lucky girl," said Leona Holbert of Mt. Morris, one of Ava's aunts. She said the girl, who enjoyed riding motorcycles and four-wheelers around her rural home, has two older sisters and a younger brother.
Hunter Robinson, 11, said he and Noah spent time "shooting hoops, riding bikes and playing video games, hockey, football ... lots of stuff.
"He was quiet, sometimes funny," he said. "I'm going to miss him."
