Feb 8, 2023 2 min read

A man died Tuesday night when fire ripped through his residence at an apartment complex in Bentleyville.

Firefighters were called to Bentleyville Apartments on Old West Road at about 9 p.m. and found fire shooting from one of the units, according to the Bentleyville Volunteer Fire Department.

Bentleyville firefighters were able to pull the man from the apartment and get him to a waiting ambulance at the scene, and he was taken to Penn Highlands Mon Valley Hospital, where he died.

The Washington County coroner’s office identified the man as 53-year-old Norman Detrick Jr. The cause and manner of his death are under investigation.

Firefighters were on the scene for about four and a half hours. Smoke damage displaced all the residents of the four unit apartment complex, Bentleyville fire Chief Dominic Sicchitano said. He said the Red Cross is providing assistance to those residents.

“There was heavy smoke and fire pushing from the apartment. We were on the scene five minutes from dispatch,” Sicchitano said.

The state police fire marshal and Bentleyville police were called to the scene to investigate, although no immediate information about the blaze was available from those departments.

Firefighters from Charleroi, Ellsworth, Fallowfield, North Strabane and Cokeburg assisted Bentleyville at the scene.