{"id":312432,"date":"2026-10-23T03:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T03:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/312432\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T03:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T03:48:12","slug":"fire-destroys-pennsylvania-home-as-mom-prepares-for-cancer-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/312432\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire destroys Pennsylvania home as mom prepares for cancer treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Felicity<\/a>NORTH HUNTINGDON, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\n

A fire this week destroyed a family home in North Huntingdon, leaving Russell and AnnaJean Buckholz, along with their three children, homeless as they also navigate AnnaJean\u2019s cancer diagnosis and upcoming treatment.<\/p>\n

Sky 4 flew over the scene of the large house fire on Broadway Street<\/a> Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Russell\u2019s sister, Christine Baverso, said AnnaJean was home at the time of the fire and managed to escape with some of their pets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have Lucy, their little dog, and they had four cats. Two are alive, one they found deceased, and one is unaccounted for,\u201d Baverso said.<\/p>\n

Looking for more news in your area | Subscribe to the WTAE YouTube Channel<\/a><\/p>\n

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. The only items recovered from the home were a Nintendo Switch game, a high school diploma, and memory bears honoring other loved ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no floors in some of the rooms, and the ceiling has been bursted through because, to stop the fire, it really impacted the kitchen and the bathroom. And then my nephew\u2019s room that’s away at college, and then upstairs, everything is just soot-covered, water-damaged and fire-damaged,\u201d Baverso said.<\/p>\n

The timing of the fire has added to the family\u2019s challenges, as AnnaJean is preparing to begin aggressive radiation and immunotherapy for newly diagnosed liver cancer and an autoimmune liver disease. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe little ones won\u2019t be allowed to be around her for seven to 10 days because of the radiation level,\u201d Baverso said. <\/p>\n

The family is currently staying in a hotel. Baverso started a fundraiser<\/a> that has raised more than $27,000, and her home is filled with donations. <\/p>\n

Help Rebuild After Fire & Battle Cancer – Fundraiser by Christine Baverso on *spotfund<\/a><\/p>\n

She said the family\u2019s most-needed items now are men\u2019s clothes and shoes for Russell. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe thank you from the bottoms of our heart. I really can\u2019t put into words what this means because we are just all flabbergasted,\u201d Baverso said.<\/p>\n

Download the WTAE app<\/a> to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters<\/a> to get breaking news in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORTH HUNTINGDON, Pa. \u2014 A fire this week destroyed a family home in North Huntingdon, leaving Russell and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9328,422,40211,28,30,29,5910],"class_list":["post-312432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-cancer","tag-fire","tag-north-huntingdon","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-westmoreland-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}