CANTON, Ohio — As Canton Police investigate Sunday morning's fire at Skyline Terrace Apartments, the State Fire Marshal is also investigating, as signs have now appeared outside the complex, suspecting it to be arson.
RELATED: 2 women dead after Canton apartment fire
I spoke with a man named Michael on Monday. Because he has children and still resides in the building that is now being investigated for possible arson, he chose not to provide his last name.
Michael said he was home at the time of the fire and described the initial outbreak of it as sounding like an explosion.
"We start hearing the, you know, smoke detectors going off. I'm like, 'Babe, get ready, this might be an actual fire.' We got our shoes on and everything. I didn't even care what my kids had on. I was just like, 'We need to go.' We rushed out, and by the time we got out the door, just smoke was filling the whole building," Michael said.
Michael and his wife ran back inside the building to grab their animals. When they were able to safely get back outside, he said they were blocked in by firetrucks, so they had no option but to sit and watch the aftermath of the fire.
"By the time they bring a stretcher, they put one (a victim) on, and we're just thinking, thank God, she looks like she's still breathing. She was faintly breathing, but she was breathing, and we're thinking, OK, thank God, you know, they saved her, and then next thing you know, another stretcher comes," Michael said.
Canton Police confirmed two women were found to have suffered severe burns, but also had sustained wounds "not associated with the fire." They have been identified as 42-year-old Katina Spells and 31-year-old Kourtni Yeager.
Michael told me he didn't know either woman personally, but said he'd met them in passing.
Michael said he noticed a revolving door of people visiting that apartment, mostly women.
"They would seem like normal people. They'd say hi. We'd say hey, you know. They seemed all friendly," he said.
Michael said when he saw both women carted out of the apartment, they were covered in ash.
He told me he did notice some unusual wounds on the women.
"One had a busted head. I was just like, OK, that doesn't seem like normal. It just didn't add up," Michael said. "It was quite traumatizing. I definitely didn't sleep last night."
The women were transported to nearby hospitals, where they were both pronounced dead, police said.
A post circulating on social media claims a third body was pulled from the fire, but Canton Police confirmed on Monday that there are only two victims.
Aside from that confirmation, Canton Police said there are no further updates at this time.
There are two signs outside the apartment stating that state fire officials suspect the blaze was a result of arson.
A reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for information leading to the identification of the person(s) responsible for the fire.
If you have any information, please call 800-589-2728.
"There's kids in here, you know, like there's other families, there's older people. This could have, you know, caught the whole building on fire. There was a propane tank sitting right there. This could have been way, way worse than what it was," Michael said.
Above the apartment that went up in flames is a family of six, according to Michael.
With the passing of these two women, the death toll at Skyline Terrace, since May, now sits at four.
RELATED: 19-year-old shot, killed in Canton; police searching for 16-year-old, 25-year-old suspects
In addition to a 19-year-old being killed at Skyline Terrace in July, a 51-year-old was also fatally shot in May.
RELATED: Canton Police arrest second man allegedly involved in fatal shooting of 51-year-old
"It's unsettling. It's very unsettling to know that, like, you know, there's a lot of death here and now there are two deaths in our building, and it's like, what do we do? Do we stay? We can't really afford to go anywhere," Michael said.
I reached out to both the Ohio Department of Commerce and the Fire and Explosion Investigations. The Department of Commerce oversees Fire and Explosion Investigations, according to its website.
Neither responded prior to publication.
