A Harrison woman who left her house to attend church and run some errands Sunday morning came back to find her laundry room on fire, a fire chief said.

No one was injured in the blaze at 127 Elbrook Drive, but the cause remained a mystery late Sunday afternoon.

“It doesn’t appear that it was the washer or dryer or anything. It was kind of separate in that room,” Citizens Hose Fire Chief Sean Jones said. “I’m not sure the exact origin right now.”

Jones said the woman lives in the home by herself.

She had been gone for about four hours. She got home to find her smoke alarm going off.

“She came in and thought that she noticed a little bit of a haze in the air, but she wasn’t sure. (She) went upstairs, didn’t notice any difference. It was the same kind of haze,” Jones said.

Jones said the woman then went downstairs to her laundry room, which is in her basement.

When she opened the door to the laundry room, there was heavy black smoke and she could see flames in one corner of the room, Jones said.

“She thought about getting her laundry or something out of there, realized (the smoke) was too thick, and she was worried about dying in the smoke so she went outside and called 911,” Jones said.

The fire was reported at 12:06 p.m., according to an Allegheny County 911 dispatcher.

Jones said he was the first to arrive on scene. He said he saw heavy smoke coming out of the front of the woman’s house.

Jones said firefighters went inside to the laundry room where the woman said the fire was, and saw flames in the same corner she did. The flames went up the wall, got into the ceiling, and traveled to the first floor.

Jones said firefighters had the fire extinguished within 30 minutes.

He declined to give a damage estimate, but said most of the damage is smoke related.

“There’s a lot of soot ‘cause there was heavy black smoke that went through the whole house,” Jones said. “Literally everything’s covered in ash. Her walls are covered in ash. The smoke damage is pretty extensive.”

Jones added, “The water and fire damage are confined to the basement, primarily.”

The Allegheny County Fire Marshal’s Office was called to the scene to investigate, but wasn’t able to determine the source of the fire on Sunday, Jones said. Jones said the fire doesn’t appear to be suspicious.

The fire marshal’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment Sunday.

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