Tuesday, September 16, 2003

By Lillian Thomas, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A Stanton Heights fire burned so fast and hot that though firefighters arrived a minute after the first call came in, they couldn't break into the small brick house in time to save Louis Trontel.

Patricia Trontel is taken to an ambulance at the scene of the fire that ravaged her home on Oglethorpe Avenue in Stanton Heights yesterday afternoon. She escaped injury, but her husband, Louis Trontel, 76, died in the fire. (Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette)

Trontel, 76, died in his home at 1140 Oglethorpe Ave. His wife, Patricia, escaped and frantically called to neighbors trying to help that her husband was still inside in the basement.

"My nephew looked out the door and saw the smoke and said 'I think your neighbor's house is on fire,' " said Linda Waraks, who lives down the street. "I grabbed my shoes and cell phone. I called 911.

"We grabbed a hose from the neighbors to try to get in. The wife was saying, 'He's in the basement.' I asked about the garage door, but she said, 'It's automatic. You'll never get in.' "

Flames and smoke were coming from every window in the house, Waraks said.

"It was real hot. It was hard to breathe. There was nothing we could do," she said.

Firefighters got the call at 1:23 p.m. and were there by 1:24, according to Battalion Chief David Smiley. The firehouse is only a few blocks away.

"There were six or seven trying to get in," said Peter LaRussa, 18, who lives across the street and watched the firefighters attack with chain saws and water. "Some were going in through the roof, some went in the front window, some went in back, and then they broke through the garage."

Smiley would not say where the fire was believed to have started, or where Trontel was found.

"The fire was not very extensive," he said. It was under control at 1:42 p.m. and the damage was mostly confined to the basement.

Damage from the one-alarm fire was estimated at $90,000, according to a release from Pittsburgh Fire Chief Peter J. Micheli Jr.

Patricia Trontel was taken to the home of LaRussa's parents, Tony and Betsy LaRussa, and then later taken by paramedics to UPMC St. Margaret.

She was not injured in the fire, but neighbors said they believed she had heart problems.

Neighbors said the couple had lived in the home for many years; property records indicate they bought the home in 1969. Lou Trontel was out and about much more than his wife.

"He was always working in the yard. He shoveled his own walk," said Peter LaRussa.

"They were very nice. They would always say 'Hi.' "

One more member of the household got out, the couple's dog, Pal. He was on the porch across the street at the home of Colette Balzar, along with other neighbors watching the aftermath of the fire.

"He knows," said Balzar, watching the dog strain at his leash toward his home. "He followed that man everywhere."

E-mail this story   Print this story