Everyone got out, thanks to a quick-acting neighbor
KINGSTON – A woman is credited with saving a neighbor as fire broke out late Sunday afternoon, at 95 Florence Street, in a single-family residence in Kingston’s 7th Ward, located on top of a scenic, and windy, hill.
Neighbors noticed smoke billowing out of the back porch area, around 5:30 p.m. and quickly called 9-11.
Across the street, Good Samaritan Christine Russomanno looked out her window and noticed the house fire.
Russomanno sprung into action, running into the burning building to alert the homeowner that her house was on fire.
Moments after the residence was evacuated, the structure became engulfed, Russomanno recalled.
“I ran into the house, just like hysterically, ‘your house is on fire!'” Russomanno said she was concerned because the owner was unaware of the dangerous situation. “She got out and got her pets out and everything. The neighbor next door, had called 9-11, as she was calling 9-11, I ran into the house,” Russomanno explained.
Municipal tax and telephone directory records list the house as being owned by Paul and Anne Saehloff. The victims were unavailable for comment.
After the fire was extinguished Kingston Fire Chief Mark Brown surveyed the scene.
“We had a reported fire in the rear of the structure, a windblown fire; it progressed rather quickly into the dwelling,” Brown said. “The fire went to four alarms before we got it under control. Extensive damage, no injuries, person got out; it appears to be an accidental fire at this time.”
The blaze caused considerable damage to the 50-foot by 50-foot wood frame structure.
