An 11-year-old boy died and another was hospitalized after a fire broke out at a home on South Grant Street Monday night.
Luzerne County Coroner Dion Fernandes said 11-year-old Nikoli Slivinski died at the scene of the fire at 77 South Grant Street. After an autopsy on Tuesday, he said the boy died by smoke inhalation, but the manner of death remains under investigation by the State Police Fire Marshal and the Wilkes-Barre City Fire Investigation Unit.
Wilkes-Barre City Fire Chief Jay Delaney said a woman was also hospitalized because of the fire.
Delaney said though firefighters arrived on the scene about four minutes after they were dispatched, they could not make it in time to the boy they were told was trapped on the second floor.
"This was an extremely complex structure fire due to the inside of the structure. (Inside) it's thick, it's hot, it's black, you can't see and you know there's an entrapped victim," he said. "By the time they (firefighters) got to him, he was deceased."
'A lot of risk' for fire crews
Delaney said the Wilkes-Barre City Fire Department got a dispatch call at 7:08 p.m. on Monday.
They arrived on the scene by 7:12, and during those few minutes, he said Luzerne County 911 notified them that one person was trapped on the second floor of the building.
He said a total of two adults and eight children live at the home, but he did not know exactly how many were home at the time of the fire.
"When our first units got there... the front of the house had numerous people on the front porch and the front yard," Delaney said. "We were able to quickly, after talking to the family, account for everyone inside except for one."
While Delaney said his team knew "where to go and how to get to" the boy, but the amount of fire and the size of the house presented a challenge.
"There was a lot of risk to find the young person and try to remove him," Delaney said. "We wish it could have turned out different."
Fire trucks and police vehicles blocked off entrances to the home's block of South Grant Street on Monday night, and smoke was visible around the area.
As crews worked to fully extinguish the fire, people gathered on the sidewalk just beyond a strip of caution tape tied off to a large tree.
The neighborhood is densely packed, with some houses just feet away from each other. Delaney complimented his crew on their work keeping the fire at 77 South Grant Street from spreading to any of the neighboring homes.
Delaney said one woman living in the home received oxygen at the scene for "smoke inhalation" and was taken to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center for further treatment.
The fire department had 23 firefighters and paramedics on scene according to Delaney. He said the Wilkes-Barre Police Department, Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshals, Luzerne County detectives, the American Red Cross and Wilkes-Barre city's fire investigators also responded to the scene.
Cause of fire under investigation
While Delaney said the Wilkes-Barre fire department would typically investigate a fire in the city on its own, Pennsylvania State Police handle investigations of any fatal fires.
He says the fire department cleared the scene around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday and investigators returned around 10 a.m.
