By Alex Lloyd Gross
The Philadelphia Fire Marshal’s Office is working to determine the cause of a devastating house fire on the 10900 block of Modena Place in Northeast Philadelphia. Just before midnight, firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke and flames coming from a three story twin house. In spite of what Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel called an”aggressive attack”, two people, aged 68 and 78 were found dead on the first floor.
Reports were that they were elderly and bedridden. At least one of them had an oxygen tank .Two people, identified as the couple’s daughter and son-in-law were hurt in the blaze and transported to a local hospital. After the blaze had been extinguished, Engine 22 remained on scene until about 4:30 AM while investigators were doing their work. The identities of the victims have not been officially released by press time. The blaze was confined to one house, but the next door house suffered smoke damage.