A husband and wife were killed in an overnight house fire in Philadelphia’s Bustleton section.
The blaze at the home on the 9800 block of Bridle Road was reported just after 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, the Philadelphia Fire Department said.
One firefighter required treatment for minor injuries suffered during the blazem officials said.
Deputy Fire Commissioner Jesse Wilson told reporters the two victims were found on the first floor of the home and carried out by firefighters. Emergency responders performed CPR on the pair, he said, but “we lost both of them.”
The victims were a man, 55, and a woman, 58. Their names were not released.
Eddie Stegena, a neighbor, said the couple was married and had taken their daughter back to school on Tuesday.
The one-alarm blaze was declared under control 12:29 a.m. Wednesday, the fire department said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The deaths came just hours before Philadelphia officials held a ceremony for the about-to-start annual fire prevention week, which runs Oct. 9 to 15.
“As we saw earlier this morning, we’re having too many fire deaths,” Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel said at the event.
The theme for this year’s fire-prevention week is careless smoking, which officials called a major cause of home fire deaths. Thiel also warned people about other common fire causes, including heating appliances, electrical problems and cooking, and asked for vigilence from the community.
“We really do need everyone involved in this effort to get fire deaths down to zero,” he said.
