Chief points to burning candle as probe continues

The house was equipped with smoke detectors, the homeowner said.
& lt;a href=mailto:sinkovich@vindy.com & gt;By PEGGY SINKOVICH & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A burning candle may have caused a fire that killed two people.
Fire Chief Ken Nussle said officials haven't issued a ruling yet but noted that a candle was being used at the 150 Ohio Ave. home before the fire.
"The power was out in that area for a few hours and they were using a candle," Nussle said. "We haven't ruled anything out. It will be a week or two before we make any ruling. "
Officials are planning to do additional tests and talk to witnesses, Nussle said.
The fire broke out around 2:29 a.m. Friday in the first-floor living room of the two-story, wooden-frame home.
A 15-year-old boy, who was sleeping downstairs, was able to escape with minor injuries. His mother, Renae Martin, 39, and her father, Fredrick Beasley, 87, were upstairs and unable to escape.
Firefighters found the bodies, near each other, in an upstairs bedroom.
The Trumbull County coroner's office performed autopsies Friday. The cause of death is pending, coroner officials said.
Yelled to jump
According to firefighters and Mike Chambers, the home's owner who rented to Martin, the boy yelled at his mother to jump but she didn't.
"It's just very, very sad," Chambers said. "There is nothing bad I could say about her, and her father was also a very nice man. She really wanted to buy the house from me and she was just waiting to get a down payment and then she was going to buy it on a land contract. It's hard to believe this happened."
Martin had three other children who were not at the house at the time, firefighters said.
Martin, who owned the home for six years, said it was equipped with smoke detectors.
& lt;a href=mailto:sinkovich@vindy.com & gt;sinkovich@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;