beefcake
07-24-2008, 10:06 AM
http://beta.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080723/NEWS01/307230019/0/NEWS0108
Fire displaced 15 people
By Jennifer Baker
jbaker@enquirer.com
WHITEWATER TWP. – A Hamilton County sheriff’s deputy roused two sleeping men from their apartments early Wednesday when a massive fire swept the building and an attached business, displacing 15 people.
No injuries were reported in the 1:45 a.m. fire at http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=3684+lawrenceburg+road+cincinnati&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=39.86519,65.390625&ie=UTF8&ll=39.164557,-84.804862&spn=0.00955,0.015965&z=16&iwloc=addr" target="_new">3684 Lawrenceburg Road, officials said.
“I told him to grab some clothes real quick, his cat and get out,” recalled Deputy Terry Eshman.
• http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=AB&Dato=20080723&Kategori=NEWS01&Lopenr=807230805&Ref=PH">Photos: Whitewater Township fire
Eshman, a deputy since 2003, was finishing up a traffic stop on U.S. 50 just west of Kilby Road, when the first calls for a fire on nearby Lawrenceburg Road came across his radio at 1:45 a.m.
He flipped on his cruiser's lights and siren and was there in less than two minutes.
When he pulled up, he saw residents standing in the parking lot in front of the burning building, which has 13 apartments attached in the back. He ordered the residents away from the building so they wouldn't get hurt.
“I asked if there was anybody else in the building,” he said. “They said a couple people hadn't come out, so I went and knocked on all those doors.”
One man came out but no one answered at the second door. Eshman was about to kick down the door when the sleeping occupant woke up, opened the door and came out.
“He didn’t speak…I just told him to get out, the building was on fire,” Eshman said.
Eshman, 34, the father of two small girls, 9 and 3, described the rescue as rewarding but noted anybody else would have helped, too.
“I think any other deputy in this position would have done the exact same thing,” he said. “Anybody, really. You just have to make sure that everybody gets out.”
The blaze, which drew more than a dozen fire agencies to the building at 3684 Lawrenceburg Road, was out at 4:30 a.m., but it still smoldered in spots for several hours after.
The American Red Cross and Salvation Army responded to the scene to assist the displaced residents. The American Red Cross put 12 up for one night at a Harrison hotel.
"We are very fortunate no one was injured," said Whitewater Township Fire Chief Scott Schorsch.
The fire started in a business, A Hines Racing Engines. The roof of the business collapsed, and the blaze spread to the apartments, destroying 10 of them.
Fire departments were challenged in part because of the size of the building and the lack of fire hydrants in the rural area, he said.
They had to haul water from a hydrant located mile away and pump it from temporary tanks.
That challenge prompted 19 different departments to respond from Hamilton and Butler counties in Ohio and Dearborn County in Indiana. In all, 86 firefighters helped to extinguish the flames.
"We certainly pulled it off,’’ said Doug Campbell, assistant fire chief of Delhi Township, one of the first to respond. "Our big concern was nobody getting hurt.’’
Melissa Vancleave, 25, a resident on and off for about eight years, was not home when the fire started. But she quickly found out her apartment was destroyed.
Vancleave said her father, Ted Pickett, ran around the apartments, screaming for the residents to get out, she said.
Then, he called her with the bad news.
“Your room is already gone,” he told her.
She said she lost everything, even her shoes. She had to borrow a pair of pink flip-flops from her boyfriend’s mother. Her boyfriend, John Rubenstahl, 25, who lived in an apartment upstairs from hers, also was left homeless by the fire.
"It pretty much all stinks. The only thing we have is what we have on. We don’t have anything else,’’ she said.
The cause of the blaze is unknown. The Hamilton County Arson Task Force is investigating.
Damage will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, Campbell estimated.
Fire displaced 15 people
By Jennifer Baker
jbaker@enquirer.com
WHITEWATER TWP. – A Hamilton County sheriff’s deputy roused two sleeping men from their apartments early Wednesday when a massive fire swept the building and an attached business, displacing 15 people.
No injuries were reported in the 1:45 a.m. fire at http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=3684+lawrenceburg+road+cincinnati&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=39.86519,65.390625&ie=UTF8&ll=39.164557,-84.804862&spn=0.00955,0.015965&z=16&iwloc=addr" target="_new">3684 Lawrenceburg Road, officials said.
“I told him to grab some clothes real quick, his cat and get out,” recalled Deputy Terry Eshman.
• http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=AB&Dato=20080723&Kategori=NEWS01&Lopenr=807230805&Ref=PH">Photos: Whitewater Township fire
Eshman, a deputy since 2003, was finishing up a traffic stop on U.S. 50 just west of Kilby Road, when the first calls for a fire on nearby Lawrenceburg Road came across his radio at 1:45 a.m.
He flipped on his cruiser's lights and siren and was there in less than two minutes.
When he pulled up, he saw residents standing in the parking lot in front of the burning building, which has 13 apartments attached in the back. He ordered the residents away from the building so they wouldn't get hurt.
“I asked if there was anybody else in the building,” he said. “They said a couple people hadn't come out, so I went and knocked on all those doors.”
One man came out but no one answered at the second door. Eshman was about to kick down the door when the sleeping occupant woke up, opened the door and came out.
“He didn’t speak…I just told him to get out, the building was on fire,” Eshman said.
Eshman, 34, the father of two small girls, 9 and 3, described the rescue as rewarding but noted anybody else would have helped, too.
“I think any other deputy in this position would have done the exact same thing,” he said. “Anybody, really. You just have to make sure that everybody gets out.”
The blaze, which drew more than a dozen fire agencies to the building at 3684 Lawrenceburg Road, was out at 4:30 a.m., but it still smoldered in spots for several hours after.
The American Red Cross and Salvation Army responded to the scene to assist the displaced residents. The American Red Cross put 12 up for one night at a Harrison hotel.
"We are very fortunate no one was injured," said Whitewater Township Fire Chief Scott Schorsch.
The fire started in a business, A Hines Racing Engines. The roof of the business collapsed, and the blaze spread to the apartments, destroying 10 of them.
Fire departments were challenged in part because of the size of the building and the lack of fire hydrants in the rural area, he said.
They had to haul water from a hydrant located mile away and pump it from temporary tanks.
That challenge prompted 19 different departments to respond from Hamilton and Butler counties in Ohio and Dearborn County in Indiana. In all, 86 firefighters helped to extinguish the flames.
"We certainly pulled it off,’’ said Doug Campbell, assistant fire chief of Delhi Township, one of the first to respond. "Our big concern was nobody getting hurt.’’
Melissa Vancleave, 25, a resident on and off for about eight years, was not home when the fire started. But she quickly found out her apartment was destroyed.
Vancleave said her father, Ted Pickett, ran around the apartments, screaming for the residents to get out, she said.
Then, he called her with the bad news.
“Your room is already gone,” he told her.
She said she lost everything, even her shoes. She had to borrow a pair of pink flip-flops from her boyfriend’s mother. Her boyfriend, John Rubenstahl, 25, who lived in an apartment upstairs from hers, also was left homeless by the fire.
"It pretty much all stinks. The only thing we have is what we have on. We don’t have anything else,’’ she said.
The cause of the blaze is unknown. The Hamilton County Arson Task Force is investigating.
Damage will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, Campbell estimated.