Neighbor shaken by deaths of woman, two boys in fire

Firefighters quickly learned that the family was still inside the burning home.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- Andy Ratliff stood on the sidewalk in front of his Dearborn Avenue home, still trying to make sense of what happened only hours earlier in the two-floor apartment adjoining his.
Fire ripped through 413 Dearborn early Tuesday, killing the three people who lived there: Lena Cross, 22, and her two sons, Mason Cross, 5, and Christian Pizzulo, 2, all found in the home by city firefighters.
Ratliff, who lived next door in the duplex, was the first to notice the home on fire about 5 a.m. He was awakened by the smell of smoke, he said, and began pounding on the neighbors' front door. When there was no response at the front, he moved to the back door -- still pounding.
"I was thinking this place is totally engulfed in flames. I thought the place was going to blow up," he said. "I was really praying nobody was in there."
Girard fire Capt. Sal Ponzio said firefighters quickly learned that the family was still in the home. He said the front door was deadbolt locked so firefighters entered the rear door and immediately found the two children upstairs, dead in their beds.
Ponzio said Lena Cross was found lying on a couch in the downstairs front room after the fire had been extinguished. He said the first floor had been engulfed in flames, with mostly smoke damage to the second floor.
Early theory
Fire Chief Ken Bornemiss said the preliminary belief is that the fire started in the downstairs front room. The fire appeared to have gone on for some time before authorities were notified and firefighters arrived.
Ponzio said it has not been determined if smoke detectors were in the home.
City officials have been concerned about safety after several recent suspicious fires in the city.
Ponzio said, however, there is nothing to indicate the fire on Dearborn is linked to those other fires. He said fires in a neighborhood several blocks away, on Idaho and Indiana avenues, were set to abandoned buildings.
The Girard Fire Department along with the state fire marshal's office is investigating the origin and cause of the fire.
As for Ratliff and his family, they are being placed in a home two blocks away. The Ratliffs' adjoining residence in the duplex, which is owned by the Trumbull Metropolitan Housing Authority, was damaged by smoke.
Still, he can't help but remember his two children playing days earlier with the two children caught in the fire -- and wondering what if.
"I tried, I really did try. I wanted to get in there so bad. I really did try," he said. "I just wish I had woken up sooner."
jgoodwin@vindy.com