NILES HOUSE FIRE Man wants joint burial but won't press issue
A service is planned for the four victims, but two won't be there.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
CORTLAND -- A Cortland man whose daughter and three grandchildren died in a Niles fire says he won't mount a legal challenge to have them buried together.
"All's I want is for them to be buried together," Larry Price said Saturday.
His daughter, Andria Price, 33, and her three children, Chelsea Smith, 13, Angela Miner, 8, and Jenna Miner, 6, perished in a Thursday morning blaze at their North Main Street home.
"She kept them together. Let them be buried together," Price lamented of his daughter's family.
The two younger girls are the daughters of Robert Miner of Bristolville. The Trumbull County Coroner's Office released the bodies to Miner.
Price said he consulted Saturday with his Youngstown attorney, James Pazol, who told him it would take two to three weeks to reach a legal resolution.
"I don't want to do that. I want this over," Price said.
Miner did not return a message left at his home seeking comment.
The bodies were found in the mother's second-floor bedroom after firefighters were notified around 2:15 a.m. Police tried to get into the 2 1/2-story house through the back, but were driven back by the smoke and flames.
The coroner's office said all of them died of smoke inhalation.
Price said it wasn't unusual for the three girls to be in their mother's bedroom on hot nights because it was the only room in the house that had air conditioning.
Originally, Price said, Miner told him that he could handle the funeral arrangements, but Miner later changed his mind.
Quotable
Price, a former firefighter, noted that he tried to compromise with Miner but Miner "wouldn't budge an inch."
"You don't separate a family like this," Price lamented.
Nonetheless, Price said he will meet today with the Joseph Rossi Funeral Home in Niles to make memorial service arrangements.
"I can't believe the outpouring from the city of Niles," Price said, noting the service may have to be moved to a church to accommodate the mourners, who are also contributing money to meet expenses.
Arrangements for Angela and Jenna Miner are pending at McFarland Funeral Home in Warren.
The service in Niles will be for all the children and their mother, Price said. Ashes from his daughter's and Chelsea's urns will be placed in urns for Angela and Jenna.
"They'll be there in spirit," Price said of his youngest granddaughters.
Meanwhile, the house at 902 N. Main St. remains padlocked and boarded up.
The fire is being investigated by the state Fire Marshal's Office. Price said Niles fire officials told him that additional arson investigators will be brought in Monday.
yovich@vindy.com