One man died early yesterday in a raging house fire in Lawrenceville that spread to an adjacent home and across a narrow alley to two other houses before firefighters arrived.

Firefighters who responded at 4:17 a.m. to the three-alarm fire at 5228 Poe Way fought to save the trapped victim and succeeded in keeping the fire from causing even more damage, said Pittsburgh Deputy Fire Chief Michael Mullen.

"They made every attempt they could to get in there," Deputy Chief Mullen said, "but it was so heavily involved it was impossible to get in."

Thwarted in entering the front of the two-story Insulbrick frame house, which had flames "from the sidewalk to the roof," firefighters went to a side door but were stopped in their tracks by two "vicious" dogs -- an Akita and a pit bull -- in the yard, Deputy Chief Mullen said. Before neighbors could calm the dogs, the second floor and roof collapsed.

"Had they gotten in there a little sooner, they would have been injured or killed," Deputy Chief Mullen said.

During all of this, firefighters fought the inferno at 5228 Poe and another large one next door at 5226 Poe, a home constructed so closely that authorities initially thought the two houses were a duplex. The fire there was on the upper floor.

Across the alley -- so narrow that ladders had to be hand-carried to the scene -- two other homes caught on fire from radiant heat.

"They basically extinguished four structure fires," Deputy Chief Mullen said in praising the firefighters, who fought the blazes for several hours. "They did everything perfectly, controlling the exposure.

"There was nothing they could have done to save the guy's life. He was dead before 911 was called, in my professional opinion."

The victim, who by last night had not been identified, was found in the front of the house in a living room where the blaze is believed to have started and the fire was the heaviest. Two other occupants were able to escape.

"The circumstances were a narrow alley with parked cars, multiple buildings on fire, a report of a trapped occupant, and vicious dogs. Yet no other houses caught on fire. [The firefighters] need to be recognized for their efforts," Deputy Chief Mullen said.

As is standard procedure in such cases, fire investigators are attempting to determine the cause of the blaze.

The houses at 5228 and 5226 Poe were destroyed and the two houses across the alley suffered minor damage, Deputy Chief Mullen said.

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