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Coroner rules on Parkflffe fire victims
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Although the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office ruled the December deaths of five children in a fire at their Parkcliffe Avenue home as accidental Thursday, there is still no word on what caused the blaze.
Fire Department Capt. Kurt Wright, the department’s fire investigator, said he still wants to speak to the mother of the children, Amy Acevedo Negron, before he issues his final report. He said he was able to speak to her only once when she was in the hospital immediately after the fire, but he still wants a follow-up interview.
Wright said he hopes to speak to her soon. He said he wanted to wait until the coroner’s ruling was issued before he spoke to her again. Wright has said before, however, the fire is not considered suspicious.
Also, earlier this month, Negron made a police report Feb. 4, saying a family member is holding up to $15,000 that was raised for the family in the aftermath of the fire to help her pay for funeral and burial expenses. The case has been assigned to a detective.
The coroner’s office ruled that five children died of “thermal and inhalational injuries” and the manner of death is accidental.
Aleysha Rosario, 9, Charles Gunn, 3, Ly’Asia Gunn, 2, and 1-year-old twins Arianna and Brianna Negron all died after the fire broke out about 11:25 p.m. Dec. 10 inside their 434 Parkcliffe Ave. home.
Negron was injured after she jumped out a second-floor window wearing hardly any clothing.
Although an exact cause of the fire has not been released, fire officials have said it started on the first floor of the two-story home. The home had working smoke detectors that were going off when firefighters arrived.
The deaths are the largest in a city fire since a Jan. 23, 2008, arson at 1645 Stewart Ave. on the East Side that killed two adults and four children.
Five people were able to escape that blaze. That fire was intentionally set with an accelerant poured on the front porch. The motive for that fire was a dispute over a cellphone.