Erik Kust only wants to be known as a good neighbor.
Others call him a hero.
Thursday night, Kust was heading home from the grocery store. He was about four blocks away from his Verona home when he stopped at an intersection and noticed heavy smoke billowing from the windows of an apartment building on Center Avenue.
He immediately pulled over, told a bystander to call 911 and sprang into action.
“I’ve lived in Verona my whole life, so I knew it was apartments,” Kust says. “I just started banging on doors.”
He said the first door was opened by a young mother and her child. Kust reassuringly said, “Come on, we’ve got to get you guys out of here.”
He took them to his truck to keep them warm in the night’s sub-freezing temperatures and went back to the building.
The next few doors yielded no response. He stepped back to speak with a neighbor when he heard the cries of a woman.
“I heard, ‘Help, I need help,’ ” Kust said.
He followed her directions to the back of the building and ran up to the second floor.
When Kust reached the apartment, he said the woman’s door was open and she was standing in the entryway with her dog. She handed Kust the dog and ran back into the apartment to grab her other one.
“I picked up one dog and she had the other, and we got her to the truck,” Kust said.
Verona police Officer Thomas Dessell was in the front of the building kicking in doors to see whether anyone was still inside when he saw Kust and the woman come around the corner of the building.
“I felt relief,” Dessell said when he spotted both of them unharmed.
By this time, other emergency services had arrived and Kust stepped back.
He has been thanked by displaced residents and other members of the community, but remains steadfast in the belief that he did what any good neighbor would do.
“I was raised to always help,” Kust said. “I wouldn’t be able to sit back and watch someone else in danger.”
Looking back on the night, Kust said it all happened so quickly.
“I’m just glad I was there,” he said. “If I was (at the stop sign) a second earlier, I would have never saw the smoke. I’m just counting my blessings that no one was hurt.
“Things can be replaced but lives can’t,” he said.
According to the Allegheny County Fire Marshal’s Office, the blaze started in the basement. No further information was provided as the investigation continues.
The fire raged for hours, traveling from the basement until flames shot through the roof of the building. Dessell previously told TribLive three of six residents were in the building when the fire broke out.
All three made it out safely, but two were treated for smoke inhalation by a Lower Valley Ambulance crew. Dessell said both residents were released and no one had to be transferred to the hospital.
Victims of the fire and first responders used a bus supplied by Pittsburgh Regional Transit as shelter from the biting cold. The building is believed to be a total loss.
The Red Cross and the Salvation Army also were called to the scene to assist those displaced by the fire. Dessell said they are with family members.
How people can help
Less than 24 hours after the fire, community members and organizations have established multiple fundraising and collections efforts.
Desiree Connor of Shaler said her two daughters, ages 6 and 7, live in a first-floor apartment with her ex-husband. Fortunately, the girls were with their mother at the time of the fire.
Connor said she came to Verona to check on her children and her ex. Within hours of the fire, Connor set up a GoFundMe account to benefit her children and ex-husband, who she said “lost everything.”
In addition to the GoFundMe, she has set up a collection for all of the families displaced by the fire. Connor posted donation drop-off locations at Main Street Bar & Billiards and Steel City Beer, both in Sharpsburg, and Riverview Community Action Corp. in Oakmont.
She asked that donations be labeled with families’ names. Information will be updated as she learns the names and information of everyone affected.
Dessell is organizing a spaghetti dinner on behalf of the Verona Police Department and the Verona Volunteer Fire Company to benefit the displaced families.
The fundraiser will take place Thursday, Dec. 19 at the Verona Fire Department on Parker Street. Dinner will be $8 for adults and $5 for children. He said there will be a basket raffle as well. Basket donations are being accepted ahead of the dinner.
Featured Local Businesses
Dessell said the Verona Chamber of Commerce is organizing a donation collection at certain businesses in the area. For now, people can drop off donations at Jack’s Barber Shop, Verona News, the Giant Eagle in the River Town Shopping Plaza, Etta’s Blvd Doggy Daycare and Pinks Tiny Paws.
There also is a collection box set up in front of the administrative office window of the Verona Borough Building.