CANTON, Pa. -- Canton Police Officer Trey Kurtz was commended at the Canton Borough Council meeting Monday for his response to a fatal fire early Monday in Troy.
At the meeting, Canton Fire Chief J. Scott May said he would like council to recognize Kurtz.
When asked for comment after the meeting, Kurtz said that he was coming back from the Bradford County Correctional Facility and was passing through Troy when he saw the smoke in the sky.
On scene, he saw that the fire had engulfed the front of the home, located on Canton Street.
He called the fire into 911 and got a fire extinguisher from the trunk of his car.
Troy Police Officer Quentin Reinford was also in the area and joined Kurtz.
Kurtz said they broke in a door and entered the smoky interior, and "yelled our heads off" in an effort to find the residents, but there was too much smoke and they had to exit, before firefighters arrived.
Council member Darryl Jannone agreed with May, and said Kurtz has been "a great addition" to the borough.
Bradford County Coroner Tom Carman didn't release the fire victims' names or their ages, only saying that a male and a female, as well as a dog, died in the fire at the two-story wood frame house. Troy Fire Chief Roy Vargson said a cat also died.
Carman said positive confirmation of the people's identities will be made at an autopsy, the date of which has not been scheduled.
However, people in the community identified the victims as Brandon and Katie Evans.
Vargson said the cause is unknown and the fire is believed to have started on the porch.
Copyright 2014 - The Daily Review, Towanda, Pa.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
