Lighters started fire that killed 4-year-old

Staff report

WARREN

The Warren Fire Department has determined that the March 2 house fire at 525 Maryland Street NE that killed 4-year-old Javarie Crenshaw started when his 5-year-old brother lit a mattress on fire with two lighters.

The investigation also determined that family members tried to put out the fire on their own before calling 911, and the house lacked a smoke detector on the second floor.

Ken Nussle, fire chief, said investigators found two lighters under a dresser in the room where the fire started — the second-floor bedroom where the 5-year-old was sleeping when the fire was reported at 8:27 a.m.

The 5-year-old, his mother Brittany Sheets, and his grandmother Sharon Albert were outside of the house when firefighters arrived. Javarie and Mark Sheets, 22, Javarie’s uncle, were not able to get out of the house and were rescued unconscious by firefighters. Albert and Mark Sheets were treated in the hospital for their injuries but have recovered.

Javarie died in Akron Children’s Hospital on March 3.

Nussle said all of the home’s occupants were on the second floor when the fire started, but Albert and Brittany Sheets descended the stairs, then took water to the second floor in an attempt to douse the flames without calling 911.

Nussle noted that this was the third fire fatality in less than a year, with the last one being in December on Hamilton Street Southwest resulting from smoking in bed; and the one before that being an intentionally set house fire on Bonnie Brae Avenue Northeast that killed one of three female residents.