Shaler fire investigation focuses on basement

Fire investigators on Sunday were focusing on the basement of a Shaler home in trying to identify the cause of a blaze that killed a toddler and injured several others Friday night, authorities said.

Township police Chief Sean Frank said firefighters found 2- year- old Danika DeRamo on the first floor of a two-story home in the 700 block of Fall Run Road. She was transported to a hospital, where she later died.

Fire investigators were focusing on the basement of the home as the likely place the fire started, Chief Frank said.

The cause of the fire was not yet known. The Allegheny County police homicide unit and county fire marshal’s office are investigating.

Four others in the house escaped the flames, he said. Two of them were taken to the hospital by ambulance, and two others went to the hospital by private vehicle. Only one person, the child’s grandmother, remainedhospitalized on Sunday, the chief said.

Four firefighters were injured, none life-threateningly, and taken to the hospital.

“Our hearts go out to the family and all involved in the rescue of this young child,” Chief Frank said. “Please keep all involved in your thoughts and prayers.”

The fire was reported about 9:40 p.m., and first responders arrived to see flames shooting out of the house on Fall Run, a steep, narrow thoroughfare with a handful of homes connecting Middle Road and Route 8 in Shaler.

Firefighters were still working on the scene at midnight, checking for hotspots.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for the family, with a goal of raising $10,000. By early afternoon Sunday, $7,260 had been raised. The page noted that Dave DeRamo and Courtney Frederick were Danika’s parents and that Dave’s mother, who was not named, was badly burned in the fire and had tried to rescue Danika, but was turned back by the heat and flames. She was being treated at UPMC Mercy Hospital.

“Dave and Danika are the best things in my life,” Courtney Lynn Frederick wrote on her Facebook page.