By Barbara Carmen
The Columbus Dispatch
MARION, Ohio — A family’s terror and city budget cuts caused delays and confusion as a blaze spread through an apartment building, killing a baby and her toddler brother Friday in Marion.
“We showed up with an extremely short crew,” said Lt. Wade Ralph of the Marion Fire Department. “We found that the family had no working cell phones, no home phone.”
He said it appeared the family might have tried to put out the fire at first but was overwhelmed. A passer-by called 911.
Ralph said half the company’s firefighters were on squad runs when the call arrived just after noon. That left only a three-man crew to enter the cavernous building, a former hospital converted into rentals. Three other firefighters stayed outside to operate equipment and set up a command post.
Dead are Jacob Tackett, 2, and Madison Barrett, 8 months.
Neighbors, hearing screams for help, endured flames and smoke to rescue 19-month-old Mackenzie Barrett. Firefighters said they took the girl to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, but a nursing supervisor said yesterday that there was no record of her. Her brother Logan Tackett, 4, was treated at a hospital and released.
Their mother, Cheyenne Tackett, 20, was treated in the emergency room at Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus and released. Three others were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Ralph said the apartment was engulfed when firefighters arrived.
City firefighters quickly called for help, summoning eight off-duty firefighters from home and borrowing six firefighters under a mutual-aid pact with Marion Township.
The economy has taken a toll on the department, Ralph said. The city of 35,000 people, about 50 miles north of Columbus, announced budget cuts in January when the unemployment rate there threatened to crest 10 percent.
The city generally isn’t replacing those who retire or quit, leaving 59 firefighters in a department that previously had 65. Although losing one firefighter from a fully staffed shift might appear insignificant, it can take vital equipment off the street because firetrucks are large and complicated and require a certain level of staffing.
“We’re in the same situation a lot of cities are,” Ralph said.
John K. Mahoney, deputy director of the Ohio Municipal League, said such cutbacks are “happening all over the state.”
“A lot of our members have had a hard time over the last 10 years, but revenues fell off the table last September,” Mahoney said.
“You can fool with the edges, like recreation and parks and golf courses, but that doesn’t save you a lot of money,” Mahoney said. “In any city over 25,000 (people), the police and fire budget is going to be 50 to 70 percent of the city’s payroll.”
Marion Mayor Scott Schertzer said his city has had “almost no growth at all” in this year’s budget. The city is hiring cautiously in case money for the position evaporates, he said.
“Every time an employee leaves, we re-evaluate and assess the budget,” Schertzer said. “I’m concerned the economy is hurting our ability to provide services to citizens.
“We can talk all we want about the budget and job losses, but let’s put things in perspective: Two very young lives were lost, and that’s going to affect that family forever.”
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