Three people, including an eight-year-old boy, died in separate Cleveland house fires Monday morning. That brings the total deaths caused by fire to six in the past 10 days, and the city has issued a PSA in response, advising residents to make sure that they have functional smoke detectors installed.
Firefighters told a Cleveland.com reporter that there were no working smoke detectors in either of the two homes where fires broke out Monday.
Just after midnight Sunday night / Monday morning, a fire started on E. 49th Street in the city's North Broadway neighborhood. A 55-year-old woman, Linda Peck, and her 30-year-old son, Christopher Peck, died from smoke inhalation in the blaze. A dog also died. Via a city press release, the division of fire continues to investigate the origin of that fire.
A few hours later, on Searsdale Avenue in Cleveland's Old Brooklyn neighborhood, an eight-year-old boy, later identified as Marious Cruz, died in a house fire. His mother and nine-year-old brother leaped from the a second-story window of the duplex. The eight-year-old was found on the third floor and was pronounced dead upon arrival at Metro. The city said last night that the woman, who suffered a dislocated shoulder and second-degree burns, is in critical condition and remains under observation at the hospital.
These three deaths arrive after similar tragedies last week. A 62-year-old woman, Mary Kelly, died in an Old-Brooklyn house fire on July 9. And another eight-year-old child, Kihlee Richardson, died alongside her great-grandmother Catherine Miller in a July 12 house fire on Granton Avenue in West Park.
(See Cleveland.com's report of the fatalities yesterday.)
In the wake of these events, the city has issued a PSA (video below), a "critical, timely reminder for the community: The City strongly encourages the community to install and maintain smoke detectors, practice fire escape plans, eliminate fire hazards and maintain fire safety practices within the home."
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