SUZANNE HOHOLIK
The Columbus Dispatch

The state fire marshal's office is investigating a mobile-home fire that killed three children Saturday night in Scioto County.


Family members identified the three as Dwayne Charles Stacey, 3; Emily Rose Stacey, 2; and Alexis Stacey, 11 months, WBNS-TV (Channel 10) reported.

The fire was reported at 10:41 p.m. at 3188 Frederick Rd. in Wheelersburg, about 95 miles south of Columbus.

"We are told by firefighters it was a very intense fire ... that spread quickly because it was an older mobile home," Shane Cartmill, a spokesman for the fire marshal's office, said yesterday.

The children's father and another relative tried to rescue them but were injured, he said. A neighbor and another family member also tried to save the children, but the fire was too intense.

Autopsies on the children are expected this week.

The mobile home did not have smoke detectors.

"This is very important because, of our last several fatal fires in the state, none have had smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms," Cartmill said.

The three deaths raised Ohio's 2010 fire-fatality toll to 143, which includes 25 victims 18 or younger.

Nine of the past 10 fatal residential fires in Ohio have occurred in homes that had no smoke alarm or no working alarm, according to the fire marshal's office. Those 10 fires claimed 16 lives.

Dispatch reporter Randy Ludlow contributed to this story.

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December 20, 2010