Deadly Kettering house fire cause still unknown


Local fire deaths by county in 2015

Butler: 2

Champaign: 1

Clark: 2

Darke: 0

Greene: 0

Logan: 0

Miami: 1

Montgomery: 6

Preble: 2

Shelby: 1

Warren: 0

Total number of fire deaths in Ohio

2015: 117

2014: 115

2013: 105

2012: 106

2011: 128

2010: 155

Total number of fire deaths in Ohio

2015: 117

2014: 115

2013: 105

2012: 106

2011: 128

2010: 155

State and local investigators are still seeking a cause of a house fire and trying to confirm the identity of a woman killed in Kettering on Wednesday night.

The person who died in the fire has not been identified. An autopsy was scheduled for Thursday, but the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office said it could take days to identify the body.

The fire broke out Wednesday evening at the house at 2365 E. Dororthy Lane. The Montgomery County Auditor’s website lists the owner of the house as Miriam Jones.

A man who lives next door to the burned house described the victim as a nice woman.

“She was like a grandma to the kids,” Rick Aldrich, a neighbor, said.

Aldrich said he and his wife previously rented the house from the victim but moved next door when she decided to live in the house herself.

Aldrich said he, his wife and children spent a lot of time with the victim. He said he believed she had a daughter, but had not met her.

“I’d take the trash out for her. My wife would take her dinner and lunches … on the holidays, like Christmas, my wife made her Christmas dinner,” said Aldrich. “We always helped her out. Me and my wife would give her a rides to the doctor.”

“The victim was located in the backside of the house. We believe it was a bedroom,” said Jim Lokai, battalion chief for Kettering Fire Department.

The investigation is being conducted by the Kettering fire officials and the state Fire Marshal’s Office.

Lokai would not speculate on what could have caused the fire.

“We do encourage working smoke detectors. They do save lives. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t have affected this outcome at this time,” Lokai said.

A hole could be seen in the roof of the house on Thursday. The siding had melted and there was charred wood.

January is typically among the worst months for fires, according to the state’s fire-prevention chief, Frank Conway. There were 26 fire deaths across the state last January, making it the deadliest month for fires.

In total, there were 117 fatal fires across the state in 2015. That was up from 115 in 2014, according to data from the fire marshal’s office.

The most fatal fires in the state in 2015 were reported in Cuyahoga County with 14, followed by Columbiana, Hamilton and Jefferson counties with seven each. Montgomery and Fairfield counties had six each.

On Dec. 28, Patrick Wolterman, a 28-year-old Hamilton firefighter, died from injuries he sustained while battling a blaze in a Hamilton home. That fire has been ruled an arson and Wolterman's death is being investigated as a homicide.

A week before that, a 16-year-old was killed in a mobile home fire in the village of Woodstock in Champaign County. The victim was identified as Jordan Edley, 16, a student at Triad High School.

In early December, Thomas Schroer, 58, died when his Sidney home in Shelby County caught fire.

Simone Fultz, 25, died in a house fire in Dayton on April 26.

In September, Chastity Hall was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and endangering children in connection to a fire that claimed the lives of her children, 10-year-old Malea and 9-year-old Malachi Bradburn. Hall, 35, had left her children home alone when the fire broke out in the early morning hours of Feb. 20.

Staff writer Andy Sedlak contributed to this story.

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