Home razed at site of fatal fire

By JOE GORMAN
jgorman@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Although the home where five children died in a fire last December is no more after being demolished Monday, a group of people made sure the ground was consecrated.
Prayers were said in the front yard of the 434 Parkcliffe Ave. home where the five died in a late night Dec. 9, 2018, fire as demolition crews prepared to knock the home down.
Rose Carter, executive director of ACTION (Alliance for Congregational Transformation in our Neighborhoods), spread holy oil on the yard just before it was chewed up by an excavator that began gnawing at the home with its bucket — finishing the job the fire couldn’t do.
“They were flowers, and called to God’s garden,” Carter said of the children.
Killed in the fire were Aleysha Rosario, 9; Charles Gunn, 3; Ly’Asia Gunn, 2; and 1-year-old twins Arianna and Brianna Negron.
Their mother, America Acevedo Negron, who was at the home at the time of the fire, was injured after she jumped out a window. Fire officials ruled the cause as accidental, saying that they think the fire was caused by smoking, but they cannot prove it.
Charles Gunn Sr., the father of two of the children, was present. Carter prayed with him and with Councilwoman Anita Davis, D-6th Ward.
Carter asked God to grant strength to both the mother of the children and to the elder Gunn. She said as believers in Jesus Christ, she is confident they will see the children again one day.
“We don’t understand why” they died, she said. “But we know someday we will meet them.”
The home was demolished by the landlord who owned it. There were still piles of stuffed animals, flowers, cards, candles and other objects left as a tribute to the children. Some of those that were tied to the front porch were caught in the rubble when the house was collapsed. The odor of burnt wood was still present five months after the fire.
A back door had been opened and inside a hallway to the basement and kitchen the effects of the fire could be seen in the blackened walls and peeling paint.
Carter said she hopes the fire and its aftermath serve as a call to people to pay more attention their own children and the children of the city.
“It’s a new beginning and we can learn from this,” Carter said. “We can take care of our children. We can remember our children.”
The elder Gunn did not speak. Davis and other community activists spearheaded a drive to help the family pay for funeral expenses.