Channel 11 Exclusive: Woman delivering newspapers notified Tarentum residents of house fire

TARENTUM, Pa. — A woman delivering newspapers saved an elderly couple when their home caught on fire in Tarentum Monday morning.

She says she was at the right place at the right time.

”God sent me there, 100% God sent me there,” said Jennifer Colarossi, a Trib carrier.

Colarossi is sharing her heroic story only with Channel 11.

Early Monday morning, while she was delivering newspapers for the Trib, she took a different paper route and came across a home along Grantham Street engulfed in smoke.

”It was thick black smoke. I could see it pouring out of the top of the roof of the house,” said Colarossi.

She says she pulled over immediately, called 911 and went up to the front porch.

”I went up there and yelled, ‘is anyone in there?’ and the lady said ‘I had a stroke, I can’t move’ and I just acted,” said Colarossi.

Colarossi jumped into action minutes before first responders got there.

She put her hoodie over her face, went inside and was able to drag the elderly woman and guide her husband out of the home.

She saved both of their lives.

She says if she wasn’t there, she thinks they wouldn’t have made it out alive.

”I was so happy I could help them and I was able to be there because it was 4:30 in the morning, no one is outside,” said Colarossi.

The woman was taken to a local hospital for possible smoke inhalation.

A GoFundMe has been started for Colarossi, who had personal belongings damaged by the fire as she saved the people inside the home. Click here to donate.

Fire officials believe the fire started in the basement.

The Allegheny County fire marshal is investigating the cause of the fire.

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