Four dead in fire at house in Kettering

Associated Press

KETTERING

The Ohio State Fire Marshal’s office says there is no evidence of any working smoke detectors in a house where four people died in a blaze that destroyed a southwest Ohio home. Two of those killed were children.

The fire marshal’s office says investigators have finished their scene investigation of the Thursday morning fire. No cause has been determined.

The fire marshal’s office said investigators at the scene believe there were seven people in the house in the Dayton suburb of Kettering. Three people escaped, one with injuries. Officials did not immediately release details on the injured.

Neighbors said a family of seven — four children, two parents and a grandparent — lived in the home, The Dayton Daily News reported. Kari Basson of the Kettering City School District said police had notified the district that some of its students were involved. District crisis-management teams planned to address the situation in the affected schools, she said.

The Montgomery County coroner’s office said one of the dead was confirmed to be 76-year-old Forrest Carroll. Two of the dead were children, and the other was an adult female, a coroner’s spokeswoman said.

The upper part of the home collapsed into the basement, fire marshal’s spokesman Michael Duchesne said. Two neighboring homes also were damaged.

Neighbors called 911 about 3:50 a.m. to report the fire.

“The neighbor looked out and saw the flames from the house. At that time, the house was fully engulfed,” Kettering Police Lt. Craig Moore said.

A neighbor, Larry Graf, said he heard someone yelling, “Is anybody in the house, is anybody in the house?” just before 4 a.m.

“The flames were pretty intense,” Graf said. “You could feel the heat from it.”

Emergency responders were hindered by intense heat, and firefighters couldn’t get inside the house, Moore said. They also spotted a man outside the home but couldn’t reach him right away, he said. The man died at the scene.

A police officer and a firefighter were treated for fire-related injuries.