Warren man found after house goes up in flames

Staff report

WARREN

Gino Touart and city fire Chief Ken Nussle agree that Touart’s neighbor, Timothy J. Marcu, 59, may have died quite a while before his house on Oakdale Avenue Northwest went up in flames.

Touart says he first smelled smoke late Sunday, but he didn’t know what it was.

It became more apparent about 10:45 a.m. Monday when he and others at Touart’s home spotted smoke coming from Marcu’s home at 1510 Oakdale, across the street and up the block from Touart.

About the same time, a man driving past, also spotted the fire. Touart and the driver broke in through a window, unlocked the door, found the man just behind the door and pulled him out of the house.

“He was already passed away by the time we got him out,” Touart said.

Nussle agrees, saying a fire apparently smouldered in the house for a “considerable amount of time” before it turned into a fire.

Investigators, including ones from the Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office, found a hole in the floor close to a couch and not far from where Marcu’s body was found, Nussle said.

Nussle said Marcu smoked cigarettes and lived alone, so it’s possible that smoking started the fire.

Nussle added the house did have smoke detectors – one in the basement was still sounding when firefighters arrived. Two other smoke detectors closer to the couch had melted, Nussle said.

The fire caused considerable damage to the structure, he said.