Fire crews are investigating after an overnight house fire in North Fairmount. The call came in around 7 a.m. when crews were conducting a shift change.The call for a fire on Baltimore Avenue quickly was upgraded to a full one alarm response due to the number of 911 calls, police said. As firefighters arrived, neighbors captured the images of the house burning down. Gloria Johnson Randle says she woke up to a loud popping sound.“I opened up the curtains and I yelled out, baby it’s something on fire.” Johnson Randle said.Cincinnati Fire Chief Michael Washington described the scene his crews faced. He said “Initial units arrived on the scene to heavy fire on three floors with reports of people inside.”Those first responding crews immediately called for more personnel and multiple alarms. Randle and her neighbors watched as firefighters searched the home. “I seen the neighbors standing outside, and I said ‘is everybody out of there?’, and they said ‘we don’t know yet,'” Johnson Randle said. “What goes through my mind is those little babies that were in there. They had two children and one adult. They had a dog and a cat, but all I was worried about was those babies in there.”Washington said his crews had one priority when arriving on scene.“When you get reports of someone inside, you want to do all you can to save a life. Firefighters later confirmed the family was out of town. Crews did rescue the pets from inside,” Washington said.Johnson Randal says after watching this all play out she and her family now need to put together a safety plan for their home.“You have to be able to get in and get out so that you don’t have to worry about a tragedy like that.”Fire investigators have not determined a cause of the fire. Damage is estimated at more than $200,000.
Fire crews are investigating after an overnight house fire in North Fairmount.
The call came in around 7 a.m. when crews were conducting a shift change.
The call for a fire on Baltimore Avenue quickly was upgraded to a full one alarm response due to the number of 911 calls, police said.
As firefighters arrived, neighbors captured the images of the house burning down. Gloria Johnson Randle says she woke up to a loud popping sound.
“I opened up the curtains and I yelled out, baby it’s something on fire.” Johnson Randle said.
Cincinnati Fire Chief Michael Washington described the scene his crews faced.
He said “Initial units arrived on the scene to heavy fire on three floors with reports of people inside.”
Those first responding crews immediately called for more personnel and multiple alarms. Randle and her neighbors watched as firefighters searched the home.
“I seen the neighbors standing outside, and I said ‘is everybody out of there?’, and they said ‘we don’t know yet,'” Johnson Randle said. “What goes through my mind is those little babies that were in there. They had two children and one adult. They had a dog and a cat, but all I was worried about was those babies in there.”
Washington said his crews had one priority when arriving on scene.
“When you get reports of someone inside, you want to do all you can to save a life. Firefighters later confirmed the family was out of town. Crews did rescue the pets from inside,” Washington said.
Johnson Randal says after watching this all play out she and her family now need to put together a safety plan for their home.
“You have to be able to get in and get out so that you don’t have to worry about a tragedy like that.”
Fire investigators have not determined a cause of the fire. Damage is estimated at more than $200,000.
