Wednesday, March 18, 2015

A DECEMBER 2014 FIRE THAT KILLED A WOMAN AND HER THREE GRANDSONS IN FAYETTE COUNTY WAS LIKELY CAUSED BY A PROPANE GAS EXPLOSION










MARCH 18, 2015

FAYETTE COUNTY, OHIO

A December fire that killed a woman and her three grandsons in Fayette County was likely caused by a propane gas explosion, the State Fire Marshal’s office has ruled.

Due to extensive damage, investigators were unable to determine the source of the gas leak or in what room the explosion occurred. The home at 5602 Inskeep Rd. near Washington Court House was heated by propane.

Officially, the cause will be ruled as undetermined, investigators said.

The Dec. 26 fire killed Terry Harris, 60, and her grandchildren, Kenyon, 14, Broderick, 11 and Braylon, 9.

The fire was reported just after 4 a.m. and flames could be seen for miles away.

“We encourage everyone to check their homes for any gas leaks and to get out of their home if they smell gas,” Fire Marshal Larry L. Flowers said in a news release. Homeowners are also encouraged to have working smoke alarms on every level of the home and in each bedroom or sleeping area.

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FIRE KILLS WOMAN, 3 GRANDCHILDREN, IN FAYETTE COUNTY, OHIO

DECEMBER 27, 2015

WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, OHIO 

The three Harris boys had had a big day — several Christmas celebrations at a couple of different places with lots of relatives and friends.

But theirs is a close-knit bunch, Fayette County Sheriff Vernon Stanforth said. And 14-year-old Kenyon Harris, his 11-year-old brother, Broderick, and Braylon, 9, didn’t want their grandma to be alone on Christmas night.

So they spent Thursday night at her house, just two doors down from their own.
At about 4 a.m. yesterday, the ranch at 5602 Inskeep Rd. erupted in flames that could be seen for miles. All three boys died, apparently trying to make their way out.

About seven hours after the blaze, authorities recovered their bodies behind the body of their paternal grandmother, 60-year-old Terry Harris, who was near the front door, Stanforth said.

Dozens of friends and relatives gathered on Friday at the home of parents Traci and Ricky Harris as fire inspectors shoveled through still-smoldering piles of rubble and ash, all that was left of Ricky’s mother’s house after fire swiftly destroyed the home.

The family told Stanforth that they were grieving too badly to talk to reporters just yet. But he knows the Harrises — he had been Traci and Ricky’s D.A.R.E. instructor when they were in elementary school — and spoke on their behalf.
“This family is just lost,” Stanforth said. “We’re not talking about material things; we’re talking about three babies.”

Terry Harris had doted on her grandchildren, the sheriff added.
“I don’t know that a family ever recovers from something like this,” he said. “I don’t think they ever could.”

The cause of the fire is unknown. Investigators with the state fire marshal’s office picked through the debris, checking charred electrical cords and studying burn patterns to try to sort it all out.

The house collapsed into the crawl space, and a little bit of the frame is all that still stands. There was little recognizable left in the rubble: a twisted and bent metal bed frame, a few slips of fabric, some shattered window frames.

Someone had salvaged a few things and moved them away from the damage, setting them in the grass along the property’s chain-link fence: a glass relish plate and a serving dish; a couple of plates and a pile of charred and waterlogged family photos spotted with soot.

Stanforth said that it could be weeks before investigators determine a cause, if then. Authorities found no evidence of smoke detectors.

The first 911 call came in at 4:12 a.m. from a woman who lives in a house high up on a hill just north of the Harrises’ two places. She had a clear view of what was already an inferno by the time her husband spotted it when he got up in the night.

“Oh, my,” she told a dispatcher. “It’s just about burnt completely down.”
Another call came in two minutes later from a woman on another road just to the south, probably a half-mile away. She told the dispatcher that the flames were shooting into the night sky and that she was worried because she hadn’t yet heard any sirens or seen any emergency lights: “You may be too late.”

Stanforth said the fire could have been smoldering for hours. His first deputy arrived about three minutes after the first 911 call and the house had partially collapsed.

He theorized that once the fire broke free in the small ranch house, the heat would likely have blown out the windows, and that would have fed the flames.
“That’s why we saw such a fire ball and it went so quickly,” he said.

Before they went to Grandma Harris’ house on Thursday night, the boys had spent part of Christmas with their maternal grandmother, Ronda Shiltz. She lives nearby, too, and said that as soon as the emergency crews rushed down Inskeep Road, the family quickly congregated to await what they hoped would be good news. They were helpless to do anything because the flames and heat were too much for anyone.

Shiltz said the family dog had escaped, so she ran through the adjacent farmland even as the fire raged, hoping that the kids had maybe escaped and run for help.

“I walked the fields, hoping the babies got out,” she said. Too distraught to say much, she said only that the boys were talented and sweet and kind and that nothing will ever be the same.
Kenyon was a basketball standout who had dreams of playing in the NBA one day.

Broderick shined on the wrestling mat. He was to compete in a post-holiday tournament in Michigan today, Shiltz said.

Braylon had a health issue, so sports weren’t necessarily his thing. But that never stopped him from trying everything he wanted to and keeping up with his brothers.

The boys, Shiltz said, were tight.
As the family gathered to grieve on Friday, so, too, did teachers, coaches, classmates, teammates and friends. The doors at the middle-school/high-school complex for Washington Court House City Schools were opened so that anyone could stop by.

And they came: teachers with wads of tissues in their hands, lanky basketball players in their Blue Lion sweatshirts and elementary-school boys holding onto their mothers’ hands.

Superintendent Matthew McCorkle said the Harris boys always were respectful, and they were well-loved.

“They were good kids. Sweet and cute,” he said. “All we can do as a community is come together and help this family any way we can.”

Hospice of Fayette County was at the school to help.
“The kids are in shock. This news was like a hit from a two-by-four,” said Keith Clary, the hospice chaplain. “The kids don’t yet understand.”

The community held a vigil Friday night at a local church. The Rev. John Pfeifer said everyone is searching for answers and that now the best thing to do is pray for comfort, peace and for healing of those left behind.

“We have to have hope,” he said. “Sometimes that is all that is left.”