Fire engulfs SW Ohio home, people missing

WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, Ohio (AP) — Firefighters are battling a blaze that engulfed a house in southwest Ohio, and authorities have been unable to locate a family of four that lives there.

The Fayette County sheriff’s office says the fire is believed to be fatal.

The fire was reported at about 4 a.m. today. Sheriff Vernon Stanforth told the Washington Court House Record Herald that firefighters still hadn’t been able to go inside nearly five hours later. Stanforth says the single-family house collapsed on itself and the site was still hot and unstable, though the fire was under control.

Stanforth says authorities are trying to contact relatives of the residents.

County and local fire departments were at the scene with state fire investigators.