Three residents of New Kensington’s Parnassus Manor were taken to the hospital Wednesday afternoon after a fire forced the evacuation of the seven-story apartment building.

New Kensington Fire Chief Ed Saliba Jr. said the fire was reported around 3:20 p.m. It started in the kitchen of a second-floor apartment.

The fire was contained to the one apartment and was under control in about a half-hour.

Of the three residents who were hospitalized, two suffered smoke inhalation while the third had a heart-related issue, Saliba said.

No firefighters were hurt.

There are no apartments on the building’s first floor. Saliba said units on the second floor were uninhabitable because of considerable smoke damage.

Residents on the third through seventh floors were being allowed back in Wednesday evening.

While Saliba said the fire was cooking related, a state police fire marshal was investigating to determine the exact cause.

The man who lives in the apartment where the fire started was not in his apartment at the time but was in the building, Saliba said.

Kenisha Pearson said her mother, Blanche Daniels, 65, was one of the two who had inhaled smoke. Her apartment is on the second floor next to where the fire started, she said.

Pearson said her sister called her about the fire.

“I was so scared,” she said. “She’s all right, though.”

Firefighters from Arnold, Lower Burrell, Upper Burrell and Tarentum responded to help New Kensington’s departments. Saliba said other departments were covering the Tri-Cities — New Kensington, Arnold and Lower Burrell — while they were at the scene.

“I was very impressed with how well these volunteers worked hard putting up with everything they had to — the cold weather, the snow — trying to get the people out and also trying to move the equipment, the logistics, to the second floor,” Saliba said.

Parnassus Manor, 325 Main St., is a seven-floor Westmoreland County Housing Authority high-rise with 95 units. In addition to fighting the fire, firefighters helped evacuate residents who could not get out on their own.

“As the firefighters are making their way up the staircases, the residents are trying to come down,” he said. “The staircases in this building aren’t as wide as they are in today’s modern structures.”

To keep the evacuated residents warm, buses were brought to the parking lot of the nearby Eat ‘n Park restaurant. Some sought shelter in their cars in the building’s parking lot.

Valerie Crivaro has lived at Parnassus Manor for six years. She stood in the parking lot with her little dog bundled up in a blanket, uninterested in going to the buses. Because of covid, she didn’t want to be in close quarters there or in the building’s community room, where many others waited.

“I’d like to get back in my apartment,” she said.

Crivaro said she could smell the smoke at her apartment on the seventh floor.

“I heard the second floor was all black and you couldn’t see down the hallway,” she said.

Paulette Shaner said she was putting food away in her fifth floor apartment when the alarm went off. She got her cat in a carrier and got out.

She was worried about a neighbor on her floor, a woman in a wheelchair.

“Thank God she’s OK,” Shaner said.

Inspectors will evaluate the damage to the building, Westmoreland County Housing Authority Executive Director Mike Washowich said.

The American Red Cross of Greater Pennsylvania said its Westmoreland County disaster action team would help residents affected by the fire.

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