photo by: Derek Redd

Firefighters work to contain a blaze that destroyed a home on Pearl Street in Martins Ferry on Wednesday and claimed the life of one of its residents.

MARTINS FERRY — The victim of the New Year’s Eve house fire in Martins Ferry has been identified, and a GoFundMe page has been established for her family.

Martins Ferry Fire Chief I Justin Smith confirmed that 74-year-old Deborah L. Wilson was killed when a Pearl Street duplex quickly caught on fire. Wilson lived on one side of the duplex and was in the home when the fire started. Smith said the cause of the fire remained under investigation by the Ohio State Fire Marshal and no other information has yet been released.

According to the GoFundMe page created by one of Wilson’s daughters, another of Wilson’s daughters and a granddaughter were living in the duplex. Neither were at home at the time of the fire.

The house was a total loss and the GoFundMe page stated that the daughter and granddaughter had lost everything in the fire, including a pet cat. The fund will go toward covering funeral expenses, temporary housing and basic necessities for surviving family members.

The page had a donation goal of $16,000 and more than $12,000 had been raised as of Friday afternoon.

Martins Ferry firefighters were called to Pearl Street around 6 a.m. Wednesday, after a neighbor had said they heard an explosion across the street at a duplex, which quickly went up in flames. Fire departments from Martins Ferry, Bridgeport and Colerain spent hours fighting the blaze, knocking it down with heavy machinery and hosing down hot spots in the rubble.

The homes on either side of the destroyed building were severely damaged and the vinyl siding of the home across the street was melted as was part of the back bumper of a parked car. Everyone in the neighboring homes were able to escape to safety.

Smith said members of the family were on the scene at Pearl Street on Wednesday.