Two women were killed and a man was injured in a fire early Wednesday at a three-unit dwelling in North Toledo, fire officials said.
The victims’ identifications and their exact causes of death are pending an autopsy by the Lucas County Coroner’s Office.
Charlotte Brooks, a neighbor, said she was watching television a short time after 3 a.m. when her television set and the lights in the house started blinking.
“I got outside to see what’s going on and saw that [home] was on fire,” Ms. Brooks said. “A man and a woman lived there. I used to say ‘hi’ to them. They say two people are dead. It’s really tragic.”
Toledo Fire and Rescue crews arrived on the scene at 1028 N. Superior St. at about 3:30 a.m. after a 911 caller reported the house on fire with people possibly trapped inside.
The first crews at the scene saw heavy flames coming from the rear of the 2½-story wooden building and found an injured man who had reportedly jumped out a second-story window, firefighters said. He was taken to Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center with injuries deemed serious but not life-threatening, according to a statement.
Multiple attack and search crews simultaneously entered the building, where they encountered “high heat and heavy fire conditions, but continued to push toward the interior stairs in an effort of making it to the second floor where the missing occupants were thought to be,” the statement said.
Rescue crews found the first dead woman’s body about 3:42 a.m. in a second-floor bedroom, followed by the second a short time later. The fire department said the blaze was under control by 4 a.m.
About six hours later firefighters remained at the scene watching for hot spots at the home where the back was heavily charred. The 1000 block of North Superior remained closed to pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
Lucas County land records list Patrice Toyer as the owner of the building, which was built in 1867.
The fire’s cause remained under investigation and a value estimate of the damage was not available later Wednesday.
Crews at the scene reported no smoke alarms could be heard at the time of the fire. The deaths bring this year’s fire-related fatalities in Toledo to seven.
First Published July 20, 2022, 11:35 a.m.
