One person killed in Kensington fire
Firefighters rescued a woman from the roof of the front porch and she was taken to a local hospital
A man was killed in a Kensington fire Monday morning, fire officials said, while a woman was rescued from the blaze.
Firefighters responded to a fire at a house on the 900 block of East Schiller Street just before 6:40 a.m., the Philadelphia Fire Department said in a Facebook post. When firefighters arrived, they saw smoke billowing from the first floor of the two-story rowhouse, the post said.
Firefighters rescued a woman from the roof of the front porch, and she was taken to a local hospital, where she is listed in stable condition, said Rachel Cunningham, spokesperson for the fire department. A man was found dead inside the home, she said.
Neither person was immediately identified by fire officials.
The fire was brought under control at 6:56 a.m. The fire marshal’s office is investigating the fire’s cause and origin.
Monday’s blaze is the second fatal fire in the city in just three days.
A fire tore through a Fairhill rowhouse Friday morning, killing a 6-year-old girl and a 40-year-old woman and injuring two others, fire officials said.
The victims were later identified by a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health as Frances Colon Carrero, 40, and Jasmine Flores, 6.
The Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club, which teaches horseback riding to children in the city, said Colon Carrero and Jasmine were members of the club based in North Philadelphia.
”We are absolutely devastated by the loss of Frances and 6 year old Jasmine,” the club said in an Instagram post on Saturday, describing the two as “part of our family.”
Two people, a boy and a man, were injured in that fire and were taken to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and Temple University Hospital, respectively, fire officials said.
The club said the boy was in critical condition at the hospital, while the adult was “comparatively safe but devastated.”
On Friday, Nichole Polk, principal at Potter-Thomas School in Fairhill, confirmed in a letter to parents that the 6-year-old girl was a student.
“Ours is a tight-knit community, and I know this is difficult news to receive. Death is rarely something that is easy to accept, especially when it involves a young person,” Polk said, adding that support services were being made available for children and staff.