ASHTABULA, Ohio — The Ashtabula Fire Department confirms a 3-year-old girl was killed in a house fire Friday afternoon.
The call came in around 2:40 p.m. Friday afternoon, reporting heavy smoke coming from a home on Station Avenue, near Audrey Place.
Olajuwan Smith lives next door and said he could hear his neighbors in distress.
“I was working from home yesterday on my computer and I kept hearing– I still hear them– the kids and the mother crying,” he said.
He explained he found his neighbor with two of her small children standing on the back porch roof calling for help, after apparently climbing out of a second-floor window. He also saw a man who lives in the home run out the front door and around the back to help the children to safety.
Another neighbor took a ladder to the mother and brought her down from the roof.
“When the kids came down, they were saying they had their sister in the house still,” Smith recalled.
According to the fire department incident report, firefighters had to knock down extensive flames on the home's first floor before making their way upstairs. They discovered the body of a 3-year-old girl behind a closed bedroom door.
“Just really, really sad," Smith said. "I’m at a loss for words.”
The fire department said the other two children and man escaped without serious injuries. The woman was taken to the hospital in unknown condition.
The cause of the fire is under investigation and the names of the victims have not been publicly released. The State Fire Marshal is assisting in the investigation.
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