Elderly woman found trapped inside Jeannette home now in serious condition

JEANNETTE, Pa. -- An elderly woman who was rescued after she became trapped under debris in a vacant Jeannette home is now in serious condition.

Authorities said Mary Kelly, 76, was found early Thursday afternoon and transported by ambulance and then helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital. Authorities said she had been trapped under the debris for five hours.

According to Channel 11's news exchange partners at TribLIVE, firefighters found the woman in a basement stairwell of the vacant home.  Crews said only the victim's head was exposed when they got to her.

Kelly’s neighbors said she sometimes went to the house to feed stray cats. Her friend Rich Bittinger said Kelly hadn’t been seen in the neighborhood for a few days and everyone was worried.

“She told me she was trapped in there for two days,” Bittinger said. “I heard Mary’s voice and she was like, ‘Help, help!’”

“She was probably underneath about a 200-pound section of concrete wall,” Jeannette Fire Department Capt. Chuck Miller said. "She was way down in there and all we could see was this much of her face sticking up through all that debris."

Officials said Kelly is in serious condition.

“For someone to hear her from where she was at and then to go find her where she was was a miracle because there's no way anyone would have just stumbled across her,” Miller said.

One neighbor in the senior citizens high-rise where Kelly lives described her as "frisky."