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Space heater to blame after 2 children die in Cleveland house fire

Firefighters rescued three other children; investigators say that a new space heater and the house’s electrical wiring caused the blaze

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Investigators determined that the fire started on the second floor of the home, Cleveland fire Lt. Mike Norman said.

Photo/Olivia Mitchell/Tribune News Service

Adam Ferrise
cleveland.com

CLEVELAND — A space heater caused Tuesday’s fire that killed a 1-month-old girl and an 18-month-old boy, a Cleveland fire spokesman said.

Investigators determined the fire started on the second floor of the home and pinpointed the cause to a new space heater and the house’s electrical wiring, Cleveland fire Lt. Mike Norman said.

Norman said the home had smoke alarms, but they were not making any sounds when firefighters arrived.

The fire started about 10 a.m. Tuesday at the home on Jeffries Avenue near Warner Road in the city’s Broadway-Slavic Village neighborhood.

Firefighters rescued three other children in the home. A 14-year-old boy was watching the children at the time of the fire, officials said.

The children’s mother was not home at the time of the fire and arrived shortly after, officials said.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner has not yet released the identities of the two children who died, or their causes of death.

Cleveland police went to the home on Sept. 19, when a 3-year-old boy jumped out of a second-story window at the home, according to police reports. An ambulance took the boy to MetroHealth for treatment.

Ten people died in house fires in 2021 in Cleveland, the most since 12 died in 2017. Tuesday’s fire marks the second and third fire-related deaths in 2022.

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