K-9 helped find fire victim's body

[Daryl]

K-9 helped find fire victim's body Retrieved from http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19441746&BRD=1282&PAG=461&dept_id=182121&rfi=6

An area search-and-rescue dog is credited with greatly reducing the time necessary to recover a woman's body following a Whitehall fire.

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office has identified the victim of Sunday's fire as Ursula Holewinski, 66.

She died in the raging fire that broke out in her home at 1111 Varner Road at approximately 1:27 a.m. Holewinski was pronounced dead on scene at 5:52 a.m., with the cause of death pending, according to the coroner's office.

The county fire marshal's office is still investigating the cause of the fire.

"The cause is undetermined at this time," county Deputy Fire Marshal Don Brucker said Monday afternoon.

"We suspect something, but don't have enough evidence to prove it at this time. The whole contents of the first and second floor were down in the basement."

He said the floors caved in as the fire progressed, burning the structural members away.

Brucker said having Medical Rescue Team South Authority search-and-rescue K-9 Taz and handler Steve Kiray helped tremendously because the German shepherd located Holewinski's body in the rubble.

"I can't tell you how beneficial it was to have that dog from Medical Rescue Team South there," Brucker said. "Taz saved us a couple of hours of manpower digging. Rather than move the rubble and possibly get people hurt, we were able to isolate an area to dig. I called for the dog before I arrived on scene because I knew it was an extreme condition."