Warren police officer rushed into group home to help residents

WARREN — Patrolman Doug Hipple arrived on the scene of a 3:30 a.m. house fire on Bonnie Brae Avenue this morning in time to hear cries for help coming from the second-floor bedroom area and rushed inside to help.

According to one witness, the house apparently already was burning out of control.

Hipple didn’t make it out of the house on his own, however.

When Warren firefighters arrived, they pulled Hipple and three women out of the group home, but all four were badly burned. A fourth woman, an employee who assists the women, got out with minor injuries.

The four burned individuals were taken by helicopter to the Akron Children’s Hospital Burn Center.

Doug Burkhardt, director of the Trumbull County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, said the women all worked in a Fairhaven Adult Workshop, the Tony Tomaski Center, but the group home they lived in was privately run by a company called Consumer Support Services of Niles.

For the complete story, see Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com