DUQUESNE, Pa. — A Duquesne man said his 2-year-old set his house on fire after getting hold of a lighter while the parents weren’t looking.
The Tuesday afternoon fire burned the second floor of the duplex and displaced 13 people, the Red Cross said.
Dakota Scheetz said he and his wife were tending to their two youngest children when the toddler lit a pile of dirty clothes on fire in the bedroom.
“He managed to sneak off,” Scheetz said. “I went and got the fire extinguisher.”
The extinguisher didn’t work, Scheetz recalled, so he said he flooded the bathtub and then got the kids out of the house.
The Fire Marshal has not officially declared a cause for the fire. It wasn’t immediately clear why he needed extra time to investigate.
Scheetz said he would get his children into a fire safety program and added he knew the risk of his wife being a smoker with children in the house.
“Our spirits are a little crushed. It’s not the end-all, be-all,” he said.
Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW