PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The site of the row home fire that killed a woman in North Philadelphia Thursday morning went up in flames again at night. More damage was left behind.
Firefighters returned to the row home in the middle of Ogontz Avenue near Godfrey Avenue at around 11 p.m., about 18 hours after the original fire at the location was brought under control.
“I heard a bunch of commotion outside, and I come out here, and there’s just flames shooting out of this building, and you could just feel the heat from that building even across the street,” said Manu, a resident on the block who spoke to our news partners NBC10.
The roof of the property appeared partially collapsed. More of the brick was charred, and the home to the right had fire damage on the second floor towards the roof.
“At first I was kind of worried about everyone’s safety, to be honest, because there’s a lot of great people in the neighborhood,” Manu said.
Crews tackled those flames and had the situation under control in under an hour. No one was hurt. During the initial fire, crews found the woman who lives in the house unresponsive on the first floor. They took her out of the burning building, medics tried to resuscitate her but could not, and she was pronounced dead, fire officials said.
Investigators are trying to determine the cause of the fires. It was not immediately clear to fire officials if the victim had working smoke detectors in her home.