PHOTOS: A woman in an electric wheelchair escaped from a burning house on Laforce Street between North Clinton Avenue and Remington Street on Wednesday morning. The Rochester Fire Department says a cat died in the fire. A dog and two other cats made it out, but firefighters needed to put one cat on a ventilator. The fire broke out just before 6 a.m. RFD says the woman escaped before crews arrived and met them in the driveway. Crews spent 10 minutes battling the flames on the first floor from the inside, but decided to battle the flames on the second floor from the outside. โOnce we know that the house is unoccupied, itโs not worth the risk to put guys into that volume of fire,โ said RFD Deputy Chief David Compton. The building has been deemed unlivable and the Red Cross is helping the woman. The fire was so hot that it damaged the vinyl siding of a house next door. RFD is still investigating the cause.
