Investigation continues in Warren family fire deaths
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Fire investigators continue to conduct interviews to learn more about the cause of the March 3 house fire that killed two children and two adults on Austin Avenue Northwest, but so far the cause appears to be accidental.
“Every indication is it was a cooking accident, but we may never know,” Warren Fire Chief Ken Nussle said.
“We know for sure the point of origin was at the stove,” Nussle said, but the stove was destroyed in the fire, and the knobs were burned off, so it’s not clear whether someone left on a burner or what else might have happened.
One of the frustrating aspects of the fire is that it killed two more children and two more adults just eight months after four children and two adults were killed in a similar house fire on Landsdowne Avenue Northwest, Nussle said.
In both cases, the house had no smoke detectors. In both cases, cooking was thought to have been the cause. In both cases, the fire broke out in the middle of the night. In both cases, children in second-floor bedrooms died.
“There were six children killed in two fires. They were not the cause, but they lost their lives,” Nussle said.
In the aftermath of the Landsdowne fire, businesses came to the aid of the city, with stores and manufacturers providing hundreds of free smoke detectors.
In spite of the warnings and publicity from the first fire, including news coverage of the funerals, the same thing happened less than a year later.
“I really believe smoke detectors could have prevented both of these tragedies,” Nussle said.
The chief has assigned Lt. Chuck Eggleston to create fire safety programs to implement in the schools and in the community in hopes that these tragedies do not continue.
The fire safety programs for the community will focus on lower-income areas first. The Austin Avenue fire occurred in a low-income neighborhood.
“I want to ensure every house has a smoke detector. It’s vitally important,” Nussle said. “We cannot allow this to happen again. I don’t know how much more clear we can be, but we’re going to try,” Nussle said.