ALCOA, TN — The medical examiner is doing autopsies Monday on the four adults and two children killed in an early Sunday morning house fire in Alcoa, according to Alcoa Fire Chief Roger Robinson.
Robinson said a cause of the fire is unilkely to be determined today, but he expects he may have more information later Monday afternoon.
"We can't really put a timeline on when we'll know the exact cause," said Robinson.
The Alcoa Police Department is the lead investigating agency, he said, and is working with the Alcoa Fire Department and Blount County Sheriff's Office.
Robinson has called the fire the worst tragedy he's seen in his 39-year career.
He said he was not aware of any memorial services yet planned for the victims.
Twenty-nine firefighters responded to the single-story home at 885 N. Wright Road after someone called E-911 to report the blaze at 5:24 a.m. Sunday.
Aiden Morgan, 6,was among the six people killed in an early morning house fire in Alcoa on Sunday, April 22, 2018, according to Raymond Mishoe's sister, Connie Wilkins. (Photo: Courtesy of Connie Wilkins)
Authorities at a news conference Sunday afternoon didn't release the names or ages of the victims, but Connie Wilkins, Raymond Mishoe's older sister, identified them as Raymond Mishoe; his wife, Patricia Mishoe; their daughter, Olivia Mishoe; her fiancee, David Morgan; and Olivia and David's two sons, 6-year-old Aiden and 5-year-old Jaxsen.
The house is owned by Shirley Roulette of Maryville, who said she rented it for many years to a woman. After the woman died, her daughter, Patricia Mishoe, moved in along with the others, and Roulette said she had been attempting to evict them since July.
"They really weren't supposed to be there," said Wilkins, Raymond Mishoe's sister. "The last I heard, they were supposed to be out this past Tuesday. ... They were looking for a place to go."
Jaxsen Morgan, 5,was among the six people killed in an early morning house fire in Alcoa on Sunday, April 22, 2018, according to Raymond Mishoe's sister, Connie Wilkins. (Photo: Courtesy of Connie Wilkins)
Firefighters found two people dead inside the home. They rescued another four people from the burning house, Robinson said. Alcoa police officers joined emergency medical service workers in performing CPR on the victims.
Two of the victims were taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, and two were taken to Blount Memorial Hospital, Robinson said.
A call placed to Alcoa Police Detective Sgt. Kris Sanders was not immediately returned Monday morning.
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Alcoa’s fire chief called it the “worst tragedy” he’s seen in nearly four decades.
Emergency personnel were able to rescue four people from a fire that ravaged a home on North Wright Road early Sunday, but all four subsequently died at or on the way to area hospitals, Alcoa officials said in a press conference Sunday afternoon.
In all, six people died as a result of the fire — four adults and two children — with two of them pronounced dead on the scene. The names of the victims have not been released, pending autopsy results and the notification of kin.
The press conference, involving eight officials from Alcoa’s police and fire departments, was a solemn affair. Alcoa Fire Chief Roger Robinson declared that, “In my 39 years with Alcoa, this is the worst tragedy I’ve seen. ... Our condolences go out to the family.
“This is tough on us. Firefighters are humans, just like everybody else,” he said. “And this hurts.”
The officials provided a timeline of Sunday’s tragic events, beginning with an emergency call reporting a fire at 885 N. Wright Road at 5:24 a.m.
Alcoa firefighters were en route by 5:25 a.m., and officials from Alcoa and several other local emergency agencies began arriving on the scene by 5:30 a.m.
In total, 29 firefighters from Alcoa and Maryville fire departments answered the call per the two departments’ mutual aide agreement and were joined by members of the Alcoa Police Department, Blount County Sheriff’s Office and AMR Ambulance Service.
Robinson said the fire was “heavy” when emergency personnel arrived, but the firefighters were able to bring the blaze under some semblance of control over the next eight minutes, enough to allow them to search for victims.
Robinson said four victims were brought out of the home alive, and received CPR from emergency personnel. Two victims were sent to University of Tennessee Medical Center and two were sent to Blount Memorial Hospital, but none survived.
Members of AFD said the home itself, which appeared to be gutted, was probably a total loss between smoke, water and fire damage.
Neighbors were roused from sleep in the early morning hours by the commotion and the combined glow from the fire and emergency vehicle lights outside their windows.
North Wright Road resident Brian Finger said he was awakened by the lights somewhere around 5:30 a.m.
“There was nothing but smoke in front of that house, and the flames were as high as the telephone poles,” he said. “It was pretty bad. The fire trucks and police were parked all up and down the street.”
Finger said he saw at least four people being taken out of the home by emergency workers. He said he did not know the family that lived there very well, but that he and his neighbors were “dumbfounded” by the incident.
Heather Travis and her husband, Eric Travis, had moved into the home adjacent to the victims’ home in recent months, and had not yet had a chance to know their neighbors well.
“But they seemed like nice people,” Heather Travis said. “I would always see them outside, playing with the kids.”
Alcoa Police Chief David Carswell said police have begun a “slow, deliberate, methodical” investigation into the cause of fire. The investigation will include the Alcoa city fire marshal and the fire investigator from the Blount County Sheriff’s Office.
Detective Sgt. Kris Sanders from APD said that right now, this is a standard fire investigation.
“It’s standard procedure, what we call a ‘cause and origin investigation’,” he said. “We find out what the cause was, and then we can see where we need to go from there.”
Another outlet has reported names of what are believed to be the fire victims, but Alcoa police said they would not confirm names until they have received autopsy results.