Mother grateful for teen daughter’s daring rescue from Butler house fire

BUTLER, Pa. — A 16-year-old girl is still in the hospital after a daring rescue from a house fire in Butler on Wednesday.

When fire broke out at Andrea Cinci’s home at the corner of Center and Glenn Avenues around 9:30 a.m., she was at work. Her 16-year-old daughter, Bryonna, was home.

“I bolted out the door,” Cinci told Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek on Thursday.

She rushed to Butler Memorial Hospital. Two minutes after she got there, medics loaded Bryonna into a helicopter and flew her to West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh.

“We’re in the ICU burn unit,” Cinci told Havranek from the hospital room via Zoom.

The hospital is keeping Bryonna sedated. Cinci said doctors plan to wake her up Friday.

Cinci said Bryonna’s vitals are good, and she did wake up a few times since being in the hospital.

“If they wake her up enough and they tell her to squeeze their hand, she does,” she said. “It’s hard to tell where she is at right now because she’s just sleeping, but her body is resting, and it’s getting back to where it needs to be.”

Firefighters said the fire started on the first floor of their home. Dispatchers stayed on the phone with Bryonna, who helped guide them to her so they could rescue her. She eventually became unresponsive while on the phone.

The fire chief said Wednesday that the first floor was severely damaged.

“I know there’s no walls, or no flooring,” Cinci said.

Bryonna’s brother set up a GoFundMe to help his sister and mom through this difficult time, and help them get back on their feet once Bryonna is able to leave the hospital.

Cinci is grateful for the dispatchers who stayed on the phone with Bryonna and the firefighters who rescued her.

“They said that she did a really good job with describing the house and to her location, where she exactly was at, so they were all real proud of her,” Cinci said. “She is a great little kid, I’m sure she’s going to appreciate everything.”

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