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Officials seek cause of fire that killed 4 in Warren
By Ed Runyan
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Kimble
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Holmes
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Mari’Auna
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Marniece
WARREN
The early Saturday house fire that killed two adults and two children started on or near the stove, but “why and how has yet to be determined,” Warren Fire Chief Ken Nussle said Monday.
The fire killed Yolanda Holmes, 38, her boyfriend, Edtawn Kimble, 32, and two of Holmes’ daughters, Mari’Auna Holmes, 13, and Marniece Holmes, 9.
All four were found dead in their bedrooms, Nussle said. No smoke detectors were found in the home, working or otherwise. Because of the amount of damage, Nussle said he’ll recommend that the house be demolished.
One of the girls called 911 at 3:21 a.m. from a cellphone, alerting police that something was the matter, but the 911 operator didn’t notify the fire department immediately because the girl was unable to tell the dispatcher what was happening.
In the opening seconds of the call, which a Vindicator reporter reviewed Monday, the girl said, “We’re dying, we’re dying,” followed later by, “We’re dying ... we’re really hot.” Those were the only sentences the girl said.
The dispatcher asked the girl several times to say her address and tell what was the matter, but within a short time, the girl was no longer talking to the dispatcher.
More than a minute into the call, the girl could be heard saying one word: “hot.” There were no other background noises to indicate what was wrong.
The dispatcher looked up the phone number the girl was using and found that the number was associated with 160 Austin Ave. NW because of a previous 911 call from that number, on a different date.
Because the Warren Police Department is still several months away from going online with its part of Trumbull County’s enhanced 911 dispatching technology, the dispatcher couldn’t tell where the wireless call was coming from, Police Chief Tim Bowers said Monday.
When the city has enhanced 911, possibly in May, the department will be able to identify the location of wireless 911 calls to within yards instead of miles.
The Warren dispatcher could be heard talking to officers over the police radio about other calls while still periodically asking the girl what was the matter.
A little over four minutes into the call, the dispatcher notified two patrol officers about the 911 call and told them to check 160 Austin Avenue for a girl who says “she’s burning.”
Officer Mike Krafcik was only a few blocks away at the time and responded to the home, telling the dispatcher about a minute later, “We got a fire out here.” About 30 seconds later, he tells the dispatcher, “Advise fire I can see the flames through the windows.”
The dispatcher then notified the fire department of the fire at 160 Austin, adding that the fire is “showing through the windows.”
The fire department arrived three to four minutes later, Nussle said. The travel time from the fire department was only about two minutes because Austin Avenue is a short distance west of the Central Fire Station on South Street.
Bowers called Saturday’s wireless 911 call the “doomsday scenario” for a city such as Warren that doesn’t have enhanced wireless capability. It’s a situation where “you need the location of the caller, and you need it now.”
The dispatcher did a “wonderful job” by figuring out a possible address for the caller and guessing at what might be wrong, Bowers said.
Dispatchers don’t send out the fire department unless they confirm the location of a call, because a wireless caller could be anywhere, and sometimes people make prank calls, Bowers added.
Bowers believes that if the city would have had its enhanced wireless dispatching center in place Saturday morning, telling the dispatcher where the call was coming from, help of some type would have been sent sooner.
Ranisha Bruner of Warren, an adult daughter of Yolanda Holmes, said she and her two surviving sisters have been making funeral arrangements for their mother and sisters. Services will be together for the three and for Kimble, she said.
Bruner said her mother was “very, very loving, caring, would do anything for anyone and wanted the best for her girls. We never had to want for anything.”
Yolanda, who was manager of Clancy’s tavern on Youngstown Road, was “a very strong, independent woman.”
Mari’Auna was a seventh-grader at the Willard School and enjoyed cheerleading.
“She was very well-liked and always had a smile on her face,” Bruner said.
Marniece, a third-grader, was “well-liked, well-loved, very polite” and “always wanted to follow Mari’Auna. She wanted to be with her all the time,” Bruner said.