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Cause of fire still undetermined
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
ELLSWORTH
Firefighters still are trying to determine the cause of a fire at a controversial home for boys here this week.
Ellsworth Fire Chief Robert Sternburg said crews were called to a fire at Redemption House on West Western Reserve Road just after 8 p.m. Tuesday. He said people sleeping in the house were alerted to a fire inside the home by smoke detectors.
There were six people inside the residence when the blaze began. Sternburg said everyone inside the building made it safely out.
Sternburg said no determination has been made about the fire’s origin. He said investigators from the state fire marshal’s office are still looking into the situation.
There is no damage estimate to the building, but Sternburg said most of the damage was confined to one room. He said other areas of the house received small amounts of smoke and water damage.
Children being housed at the facility have been placed at various other short-term housing locations.
The facility has had a controversial existence in the township. The Ellsworth Township zoning board in 2006 ruled the facility does not constitute a single-family housekeeping unit as defined in the township zoning code and is therefore not allowed to operate in its current location.
Township Zoning Inspector Diane J. Dudek told the zoning board that the absence of a permanent adult resident at the group home and the supervision of up to 10 special-needs teenage residents by rotating shifts of group-home workers disqualified the group home from being classified as a single housekeeping unit.
An August 2008 ruling by then-Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court affirmed the board’s decision. The decision also was upheld by the 7th District Court of Appeals last year.