Couple perish in house fire, son of woman attempts to rescue them

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 his brother, Ed, who also lived in the house, was unable to rescue them.

Ed Miller, 53, was asleep in the 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 the 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 from the house 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 been determined, but the blaze started in the area of the kitchen, said Christopher Engelhart, the Hilltown 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 motorist saw the fire and called police, Engelhart said.

"They were good people," Dennis Miller said of his mother and Betancourt. The couple had lived in the Hilltown home for more than 20 years, he said.

Contact staff writer Kristin E. Holmes at 610-313-8211 or kholmes@phillynews.com.