3 family members killed in overnight fire in Brighton Heights, 1 victim identified

Three members of one family died in an overnight fire in Pittsburgh’s Brighton Heights neighborhood, in a house where about a dozen people lived, according to police and neighbors.

Pittsburgh firefighters responded to the 3400 block of McClure Avenue just before 2 a.m. The situation quickly developed into a three-alarm fire, according to city police.

Ten people were rescued from inside the building, including two women and eight children. One of the women was transported to a local hospital in serious but stable condition.

The bodies of two children and one young adult were later recovered, police said. The adult was identified Saturday afternoon by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office as Dijion Hutchinson, 19.

In addition, a firefighter from Station 32 in Deutschtown was transported for treatment for an arm laceration.

Public safety personnel cleared from the scene around 10 a.m. Saturday, leaving a blue condemnation sign plastered on the bay window at the front of the red-brick, three-story house.

Bricks had collapsed along the roof line on both sides, and the roof, too, was gone.

The yard was littered with burned debris, including a fire hose. A soccer ball sat near the house. A football sat in the side yard in front of an addition.

Neighbor recalls horror

A neighbor said late Saturday morning that she was in her living room between 1 and 2 a.m. when she heard “blood-wrenching screams.”

“I actually thought somebody was being attacked,” she said.

The woman, who asked that her name not be used, said she looked outside and saw one of the women who lived in the house pulling kids out of the front door.

The neighbor brought the children into her home to keep them warm as firefighters fought the blaze.

She said that one woman in her early 20s was burned. She leaped from a third-floor window to escape.

The children who lived in the five-bedroom house ranged in age from an infant to their early 20s, the neighbor said.

The kids stayed at her house about five hours, the neighbor said, while the American Red Cross was making arrangements for the family. That included finding a place to stay, providing formula, diapers, clothing and jackets, the woman said.

“It was light out when they finally got them situated,” she said. “They lost everything.”

Another neighbor also said she was first alerted to the fire when she heard someone scream.

“I looked out the window, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness!’” said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous.

She called 911, and when she opened her front door, smoke entered her house.

“It was so thick,” she said. “It was real scary and chaotic.”

She said she would often see the kids outside playing and passed out Halloween candy to them.

“I feel really bad,” she said. “It’s almost Christmas.”

Carlaija Whitehead, another neighbor, said she’s friends with the young woman who lives in the house.

“Her two kids would play with my son,” she said.

Whitehead said she spoke to her son, who is 7, about the fire and what happened.

“He said his soul was gone,” she said. “It’s so sad.”

Fire officials are investigating the cause of the blaze.

It is the second fire in less than five days in the Pittsburgh area to take the lives of children. Wylde Lighter, 6, and Lyric Keys, 9, died in a Sewickley house fire on Dec. 13.