Faulty heating pad likely cause of $40K house fire, official says

WARREN

Amy Ford emerged this afternoon from her badly burned Wick Street Southeast home knowing her husband was in the hospital, two of her cats were missing and her house of 40 years had suffered major fire damage early that morning.

With a burn on her own nose from the 3:12 a.m. blaze, she summed up her frustration: “This is stupid. I don’t know why it happened,” Ford said of the fire, which apparently began because of a faulty controller on the heating pad she was using in her second-story bedroom.

“I woke up and I had flames behind my head,” she said, explaining that the controller behind her head was on fire. She was using the pad for her back, she said.

Warren Fire Chief Ken Nussle said the Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office, which is investigating, also believes the heating pad caused the fire. Damage to the home, which is just down the street from Warren John F. Kennedy High School, is about $40,000, Nussle said.

Ford said her husband, Cecil, was downstairs when the fire started. He and Amy both made multiple trips up and down the stairs to get water to put on the fire, but they could not put it out.

“I’m always careful,” Amy said. “I never leave the house without turning off the coffee pot or the dryer. It’s all I’ve got,” she said of her home. “My kitties and my husband – that’s it.”

Read more about the situation in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.