When firefighters Jonathan Feicht and William Boyle climbed through the upstairs window of a Center Avenue home to rescue a teenage girl from a fire earlier this month, they couldn’t see anything.

Dispatchers informed them the girl called to report being trapped in the upstairs bedroom of the city home. But when Bryonna (Bri) Spurk fell unconscious, they had to rely on their training to locate and rescue her.

Feicht, of the Butler Bureau of Fire, was the first in the window. He said he reached to his right and was fairly certain he felt Bri. However, before attempting a rescue, he made sure the bedroom door was closed to block out as much smoke and fire as possible.

Then, he called in William Boyle, assistant chief with VA Butler Fire and Emergency Services.

“As soon as you went in the window, there was absolutely nothing but black,” Boyle said about the conditions.

This was his first life-saving rescue.

He explained how firefighters train for these conditions by “blocking light” from their helmets during training. Visibility is usually almost zero when entering a burning building, he said.

The firefighters were equipped with thermal imaging cameras, but they’re hard to read when everything in the room is a similar temperature, Boyle said.

“We do the best we can to replicate those conditions (in training),” Boyle said.

Boyle said he could feel the heat from the fire below through the floor of the upstairs bedroom. The two firefighters found Bri on the floor near the end of the bed and lifted her up while Boyle’s crew set up a second ladder outside.

Feicht said he’d had only one other call in his 18-year career where he had to carry someone out of a burning home, but it was down a set of stairs — not from a second-story window.

“It’s part of the job,” he said.

Bri and her mother lived in their home at 500 Center Ave. in Butler for five years before a fire earlier this month destroyed it.

That’s five years worth of memories and renovations in the only home her kitten, which hasn’t been seen since the fire, would experience.

Bri said she got her kitten, Nova, in December 2024 and had celebrated one birthday with it before the fire.

Andrea Cinci, the teen’s mother, said their dog was rescued by a neighbor, but their kitten never showed up.

She said she considers herself lucky to be alive after she was rescued from an April 8 fire at the Center Avenue home.

The 16-year-old, who attends Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, said she was sleeping when the fire began. However, she can’t now remember when she had woken up and called 911.

Dispatchers stayed on the line with the teenager and guided firefighters to her as she fell unconscious upon her call for help.

But Bri does remember waking up in AHN West Penn Hospital’s burn unit when her sedation was lifted the next day.

She was in the hospital for six days total and has follow-up appointments scheduled with her primary care provider, the outpatient burn unit and for an MRI.

The family stayed with Bri’s grandmother before Catholic Charities found them an apartment with month-to-month rent. They plan to stay there until they find a new house.

Firefighters listen for keywords during dispatch to understand the severity of a call. Words like “entrapment” and “multiple calls” typically hint to the call’s severity, according to Boyle.

“When you hear things like entrapment, it makes you grab another gear as a firefighter,” he said.

Firefighters at the Butler fire bureau and VA Butler Healthcare Fire work 48-hour shifts. For both Feicht and Boyle, it was the first call of their second day on shift. VA Butler Fire was wrapping up a morning meeting after breakfast, Boyle said. The fire bureau was making breakfast, Feicht said.

Feicht said fire services were dispatched for a structure fire with entrapment. The responding agencies received “up-to-the-second” updates that explained where Bri was, how to get to her and even the closest fire hydrant.

“The dispatchers did a very good job that whole incident,” Feicht said.

Those dispatchers, Nathan Blackwood, left, and Bobby Samarin, were recognized earlier this week. The Butler fire bureau’s branch of the International Association of Fire Fighters and Butler County Emergency Services commended their professionalism, composure and communication during the call.

“It’s not very often we see that sort of outcome, after everything that happened. It’s very rare,” Samarin said. “Usually, if you’re speaking to someone and they say someone’s trapped in a house, you find out there wasn’t anybody actually inside; or you get the bad outcome that nobody wants to know or see.”

Firefighters knew Bri would be unconscious when they arrived, so Feicht said the plan was always to go through her window. He said when crews arrived, Capt. Tim Iman deployed a ladder and Feicht went up and broke the window.

Once the teen was located, Feicht and Boyle carried Bri toward the window and maneuvered her outside. From there, firefighters Dominic Girimonti and Nicholas Hudek carried Bri down the ladder. Lt. Charlie Craig and cott Frederick, Butler Township director of emergency services, received Bri at the bottom.

Butler fire bureau crews then continued suppressing the fire, which had begun to move from the first floor into the stairwell. VA Butler fire crews began overhaul, which involves searching for small fires in the walls.

“It was nice to see all three organizations working seamlessly — seeing we always work together — see that pay off,” Boyle said.

The Butler fire bureau, VA Butler Fire and Butler Township Volunteer Fire District conduct joint training at the VA’s live fire training facility on their campus off New Castle Road at the site of the former domiciliary.

Since the fire broke out in the morning, it was a long day for the firefighters afterward. Feicht said his wife and children stopped by to visit, but besides that, it was business as usual.

“You keep going on calls as they come in until your shift’s over,” he said.

Boyle said he was happy to get an update that Bri was in stable condition when she was flown to AHN West Penn Hospital from Butler Memorial Hospital. He said they don’t normally receive updates on the people they rescue.

But the teen and her mother have kept the community updated.

Earlier this week, they were at the Butler County 911 Center to meet some of those involved in the girl’s rescue.