3 YOUNG SIBLINGS DIE WHEN FIRE SWEEPS THROUGH OHIO
TRAILER BECAUSE OF A DROPPED KEROSENE HEATER
By Mitch Stacy Associated
Press
January 22, 2015
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A
fire caused by a dropped kerosene heater swept through a rural trailer home on
Thursday, killing three young siblings, whose mother fell out a window trying
to save them and couldn't get back in, a sheriff said.
The heater had caught
fire, and the mother was trying to carry it outside when she dropped it in the
kitchen, causing fuel to spill and the fire to start spreading through the
doublewide trailer just outside Brilliant, an Ohio River village 140 miles east
of Columbus, Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said.
The mother then stepped
out a window, preparing to start lifting her children outside to safety, but
fell out of the window and couldn't get back inside because of the smoke and
flames, the sheriff said.
The mother ran out to a
rural road and was "hollering and screaming" until someone came by in
a car and could call 911, the sheriff said. The emergency call came in just
after noon, he said.
"I can only imagine
her mental state," Abdalla said, struggling with his emotions as he talked
about the situation. "This is just such a terrible, terrible tragedy. It's
so heartbreaking."
Killed were a 4-year-old
boy and a 4-year-old girl who were twins and their 3-year-old sister, whose
names weren't immediately released.
The mother lived with her
boyfriend and their three children in the trailer, the sheriff said. The
boyfriend was at work at the time. They were running the kerosene heater
because they couldn't afford their electric bill.
The state fire marshal's
office will investigate.
It was the fourth
multiple-death home fire in Ohio since early December. Three children were
killed in a Dec. 12 house fire in Hamilton, and a woman and three grandchildren
were killed Dec. 26 in a fire near Washington Court House. Then on Jan. 6, a
trailer fire in Fairfield County killed a 10-month-old boy, his parents and his
maternal grandparents.