Firefighters respond to Pittsburgh Airbnb where 2 were killed in shooting last year
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Firefighters on Wednesday morning responded to a North Side house where two teens were killed and eight people were injured in an Easter morning shooting last year.
Around 10 a.m., smoke was coming from the roof of the home at Suismon Street and Madison Avenue in East Allegheny.
By 11:30 a.m., the fire was extinguished, and an arson unit was investigating the scene. The unit later determined the fire was accidental, according to Maria Montano, spokeswoman for Mayor Ed Gainey.
Many of the home’s windows had been smashed out and the walls appeared burned to the beams inside.
A resident of the home, which sits on a road facing Route 279, said he left a cigarette burning and believed that was the cause of the fire.
“I was downstairs smoking a cigarette and left the room for a moment. I came back three or four minutes later and there was a fireball,” said Gary Thynes, 37, a North Side resident who has rented the former Airbnb unit since December. “My biggest concern was my dog — we couldn’t find him.”
Firefighters were able to rescue Thynes’ 9-year-old dog, Travis, he said.
A Pittsburgh public safety spokesperson was not immediately available for comment Wednesday. There was no spokesperson at the scene.
On April 17, 2022, police said about 200 people, many underage, were at a party at the Airbnb in the city’s East Allegheny neighborhood when gunfire erupted early in the morning. At least 50 rounds were fired, police said.
No arrests have been made in connection with the shooting.
“I don’t feel like this place has very good juju,” Thynes said after the fire Wednesday.
Thynes said his landlord stopped listing the house’s two rental apartments as Airbnb units last year.
In the wake of the violence, Pittsburgh City Council last year introduced legislation that would require anyone operating an Airbnb or other short-term rental property to get a license from the city and provide contact information so local officials could get in touch with them if issues arise at their property.
The measure also would require additional information, like the maximum number of guests allowed for each rental, and a log of guests who enter the property, which they would have to provide to city code enforcement officers upon request.
Though the measure was introduced to council within days of the shooting, it has not moved out of committee since it was brought to the table.