It was a hot fire on a hot day and in a difficult location to fight the flames.

Just after 10:30 a.m. multiple fire and rescue crews responded to a call for an RV on fire on Interstate 79 Northbound between Edinboro and McKean. But it was a couple of firefighters from McKean Hose Company who got their first and risked their lives to rescue people trapped inside the burning vehicle.

The aftermath is chilling, only the charred shell of the hulking RV remains.

Three people from Cranesville had set out on a trip to the Poconos when their RV caught fire.

State police report that the RV was traveling northbound on I-79 when the vehicle started smoking.  The operator pulled over on the right shoulder of the highway and the vehicle caught on fire.  

According to reports from the scene, the operator attempted to put out the fire using a fire extinguisher, but flames spread quickly, trapping two women inside, one of them in a wheelchair.

According to McKean fire chief Scott Haywood, McKean firefighter Nick Kulbacki entered the burning RV to rescue the women.  When fire made it impossible to carry them out through the RV door, he had to smash a window and pass the women out through that window to fellow firefighter Steven Amrhein.

Rescuers took the three occupants of the RV to UPMC Hamot for treatment, and transported the two firefighters to the hospital as well for treatment of smoke inhalation.

Edinboro Fire Captain Jim Dahle, was among the other rescuers responding to the scene.  He talked about the challenges of the scene. "There's multiple hazards going on between traffic, the vehicles on the interstate trying to navigate around the incident, we also are constantly battling the heat and then also dealing with the hazards directly at an incident -- so multiple hazards going on and prioritizing and mitigating as many of those hazards as possible," Capt. Dahle said.  "We did close down the Interstate and we did we did end up taking care of the incident and as soon as we're able to we try to take off that personal protective equipment to allow the cooling effect to occur," he said.

In heat like this when firefighters get back to their stations and clean up their trucks and gear, they head for the air conditioning and continually hydrate Captain Dahle said.  "You've got to rotate people out, allow them to take off their personal protective equipment, cool down get them plenty of water let them get some cool towel towels on them and then once they're body temperature is pulled down, allowing that cooling effect to take place, then we get them back into the rotation."

There's no information on the conditions of the two women rescued.  Steven Amrhein was treated for smoke inhalation and released from the hospital. Nick Kulbacki will be kept overnight for observation.

State police are continuing to investigate the incident.