EAST CLEVELAND, OH — A fire that destroyed three homes early Thursday is renewing concerns about access to water in an emergency in an East Cleveland neighborhood.
Investigators believe the fire in the 1600 block of Carlyon Road started in a vacant house and then spread to two neighboring homes.
Leroy Cook said he awoke to his granddaughter yelling there was a fire across the street around 12:45 a.m.
“It was like something on a TV show,” said Cook. “Never seen nothing like that.”
When he went outside, he noticed his neighbor’s house was on fire.
That’s when he saw the neighbor’s truck still in the driveway.
“I said, 'They’re in there, man,'” said Cook. “But it was too high, the fire was too high in front, so I just found a brick and threw it through the front window.”
He said his neighbors came through the front door a minute later, only to watch as their home burned.
It’s a scene Cook believes could have been avoided if firefighters had access to more water from fire hydrants in the neighborhood.
“They would have most definitely saved this house right there,” said Cook.
On emergency dispatch recordings, firefighters can be heard calling for more water and repeatedly asking for more pressure in hoses.
It’s the kind of thing Areda Neal feared could happen ever since someone hit the fire hydrant near her home, knocking it off its base.
She said her husband called city hall multiple times in the last year to report it.
“You just wonder,” said Neal. “It does make you wonder.”
Now that fire hydrant lays in front of three burned up houses.
Neal can’t help but wonder what if?
“If that fire hydrant had been working would the house next door have been saved?” Neal said. “Would this house have even caught on fire because they had the water to spray on it?”
Neither East Cleveland’s mayor nor fire chief have responded to messages left asking about water issues and the fire.
Now, as investigators work to determine if it was intentionally set, many living on and near Carlyon Road say they worry what will happen the next time a fire occurs.
“It might not even happen again,” said Neal. “But if it does, I’m hoping there will be a fire hydrant there.”
