VAN WERT – The Van Wert Fire Department is investigating a fire at 328 N. Market St. that left two dead Friday morning.
The Van Wert Fire Department was called to the blaze at 2:07 a.m. by the downstairs resident notifying them of the fire.
"We
had heavy fire on the upstairs," said Van Wert Fire Chief Jon Jones
who noted this is the first fire fatality that he can recall in over a
decade.
When the Van Wert Fire Department arrived, the Van Wert
City Police Department was already on scene to assist the downstairs
occupant of an apartment, but were not able to gain entrance to the
upstairs apartment.
"We had some extensive fire," said Jones. 'After a search we found two victims upstairs."
The sister of one of the victims confirmed that the victims were Tanya and Ron Shriver, residents of the upstairs apartment.
A
State Fire Marshall was on scene around 9:30 a.m. investigating the
cause of the fire. Jones said the fire started upstairs where the
heaviest damage is. He said that there is little fire damage to the
downstairs portion of the apartment complex.
The third apartment was unoccupied at the time.
The
Van Wert Fire Department has been called to several fires in the
past two weeks, but Jones stated all of the fires are unrelated.
"We've
had a couple busy weeks," said Jones of the recent fires. "There's a lot of
rumors out there; none of them are related, it's all just by
coincidence that we've had these fires close together."
Van Wert Fire Department was assisted by Convoy, Middle Point, and Ohio City Fire Departments as well as the EMA CERT team and the American Red Cross Disaster Team.
"The
CERT team assisted the families in the apartment buildings; we had
three different apartment buildings," said Mark Klausing CERT Chairman.
"We're also assisting the firefighters on scene with canteen and feeding
them."