Fire damages Jeannette house where aspiring rapper was fatally shot

Officials are investigating a Monday night fire that heavily damaged a home on Jeanette’s Cuyler Avenue where a deadly shooting occurred a week earlier.

Jeannette fire Chief Bill Frye said flames were coming out of a side window of the two-story wood-frame home but quick action by firefighters, who are stationed nearby, kept it from spreading to other houses just feet away on either side.

“It was going good when we got here, but we stopped it before it got to the other houses,” Frye said of the blaze, which was reported about 8 p.m. Multiple area fire departments responded, with tower trucks dousing the home from the front and at the rear, on Chambers Avenue.

A man who indicated he owns the house but didn’t identify himself confirmed reports that no one had been staying at the home since an Oct. 28 shooting that left two people wounded and resulted in the death of Mariell McGowan, 29, of Jeannette, an aspiring rapper and father of two.

Frye said the fire appeared to start in the basement and spread up the walls to the attic, where firefighters “stopped that right away.”

About 9 p.m., fire crews were checking for and extinguishing any remaining hot spots in the basement, where many items were stored, Frye said. “There was a lot of stuff to sort through,” he said.

He said fire damage was severe to the basement and first floor and moderate to the second floor.

A state police fire marshal is investigating.

Police have said the Oct. 28 shooting, which remains under investigation, was not random and that there had been an earlier incident with the involved individuals.

So far, no one has been charged in the shooting.