Bucks Co. blaze kills couple

Two people were killed early Monday when a small ranch-style house caught fire in Hilltown Township, Bucks County, police said.

Authorities declined to identify the couple pending a report from the Bucks County Coroner's Office, but a Doylestown man standing outside the house Monday afternoon identified the victims as his mother Katherine M. Miller, 74, and her boyfriend, James Betancourt, who was in his 80s.

Dennis Miller said his mother and Betancourt, both of whom were disabled, died after Miller's brother, Ed, tried to rescue the couple but couldn't. Ed Miller, 53, survived the blaze, Dennis Miller said.

Ed Miller, who also lived in the house, was asleep in the wood-frame house when he was awakened by Betancourt and shouts of fire, said Dennis Miller, 49. Ed Miller kicked an air conditioner out of a window in an attempt to rescue his mother and Betancourt, Dennis Miller said. Katherine Miller used a walker and Betancourt, a retired worker for a tree removal company, walked with a cane. Ed Miller escaped when the blaze became so intense that he "got cooked out by the fire" and was unable to rescue the couple, Dennis Miller said.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but the blaze started in the area of the kitchen, said Christopher Engelhart, Hilltown Township police chief. No foul play is suspected. Engelhart said he did not know whether the house had working smoke detectors.

Officials were called to the house shortly after 8 a.m. after a passing motorist saw the fire and called police, Engelhart said.

"They were good people," Dennis Miller said of his mother and Betancourt.

The couple had been together and lived in the Hilltown home for over 20 years, Dennis Miller said.