As a prayer vigil was being organized for the family of two girls who died in a house fire on Linden Avenue in Hellertown borough Friday and fundraising efforts on their behalf moved forward, fire investigators continued to seek answers about what caused the blaze.
In a news release Friday evening, Hellertown Police announced that the cause of the fire that claimed the lives of 15-year-old Brianna Baer and 10-year-old Abigail Kaufman early Friday morning remains under investigation, but noted that the fire has been determined to have originated in the southeast, first-story bedroom of the home.
An active, joint fire investigation is being conducted by the Hellertown Police Department, the Dewey Fire Co. No. 1 (Hellertown) Fire Marshal, Pennsylvania State Police fire marshals and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), the news release said.
Caution tape surrounded a home at Linden and New York avenues in Hellertown Friday morning as investigators worked to determine what caused a fire that claimed the lives of two girls there. A prayer vigil for the family of Brianna Baer and Abigail Kaufman will be held outside the home at 630 Linden Avenue, Hellertown, at 7 p.m. on Sunday, April 3.
According to borough police, when officers first arrived at the scene shortly before 1 a.m. Friday, the girls were trapped by the blaze in a second-floor bedroom.
“Initial officers on scene discovered the active dwelling fire that engulfed the ground floor of the residence and were unable to make entry,” the 6 p.m. Friday news release said.
Parents Damien Kaufman and Jen Kaufman were able to flee the home, police said, and the girls were extracted from the second floor bedroom by responding firefighters before being taken to the trauma center at St. Luke’s University Hospital in Fountain Hill.
Police said the girls succumbed to their injuries, despite the efforts made to save them.
Autopsies were scheduled to be performed by the Lehigh County Coroner’s office as part of the multi-pronged, ongoing investigation, according to the news release.
The fire is apparently the first to involve fatalities in Hellertown borough in decades.
