GREENVILLE Girl, 3, dies in fire; father suffers burns

The blaze was likely caused by a wood-burning stove igniting a couch.
GREENVILLE, Pa. -- A state fire marshal is investigating a fire that killed a 3-year-old girl and seriously injured her father and destroyed their trailer home and its contents.
Samantha Lynn Randall was pronounced dead at the scene at 10:41 a.m. Wednesday at 326 Vernon Road, Lot 36, of Millero Palm Mobile Home Court in West Salem Township by J. Bradley McGonigle III, Mercer County coroner. An autopsy was scheduled to be performed but results weren't expected until late today.
Her father, Scott Randall, was taken to UPMC Horizon, Greenville, and then flown to the burn unit at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh with second- and third-degree burns over about 70 percent of his body, after he tried unsuccessfully to rescue his daughter, said Chris Madura, West Salem fire chief.
Randall was listed in critical condition this morning.
Ruled accidental: The blaze, reported at 7:36 a.m. Wednesday, is listed as accidental, and likely was caused by the heat from a wood-burning stove igniting a couch, Madura said. Robert Ryhal, a fire marshal with the Pennsylvania State Police, is investigating.
The girl's mother, Jane McKinney, escaped with her 24-month-old son, and both were uninjured, said Madura, who said he wasn't sure of the boy's name.
Two Pennsylvania Department of Transportation workers from a nearby maintenance garage tried unsuccessfully to extinguish the blaze. The family had no insurance and the American Red Cross was providing disaster assistance, Madura said.
West Salem firefighters were assisted at the scene by the Greenville, Jamestown, Hempfield, and Transfer fire departments.