By Sarah Kramer
Delta Democrat Times
GREENVILLE, Miss. — A 4-year-old girl died in a house fire Monday evening in the 1200 block of Ridge Avenue, fire officials said.
This is the third child death resulting from a house fire in a five-month period.
Greenville Fire Chief Ruben Brown said it is unclear if anyone else was in the home at the time of the blaze.
“This is just the preliminary investigation,” he said. “We have started the investigation, but we are just trying to get all the facts together at this time.”
Brown said he along with four units, the fire marshal and command 1 responded to the 8:05 p.m. call on Monday.
“Once on the scene, the first units reported heavy flames and smoke coming from the ... left and rear side of the house,” he said. “After extinguishing the fire, it was discovered a child was inside.”
At press time, the Greenville Fire Department had not released the name of the child who died.
Firefighters have not determined the cause or origin of the fire, Brown said.
However, Greenville Fire Marshal Kenny Manning and State Fire Marshal Quincy Newson are investigating the fire this morning, and Brown said he hopes they will have more information by the end of the day.
Last year, two children died as a result of early-morning house fires.
On Sept. 28, a 5-year-old boy, Ja’marian Jamal Harris, died in a house fire in the 500 block of Beauchamp Avenue. The Greenville Fire Department is investigating the death, and fire officials have not determined the cause or origin of the fire but are not ruling out arson.
One month later, on Oct. 28, 2-year-old Jaidyn Jones died in a house fire at 618 Inez St. Fire officials said the fire started in the kitchen area but have not determined the cause of the blaze.
Because of the recent fire deaths, Brown, who was appointed to the chief position on Jan. 22, said his main goal is to be more aggressive on fire prevention by improving a fire, life and safety program.
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