Alliance house fire kills 1 resident, 2 able to escape

ALLIANCE, Ohio (WOIO) - One person is dead, and two others escaped after flames ripped through a Stark County home on Thursday afternoon.

The multi-alarm blaze at 1335 South Arch Ave. was fully engulfed when Alliance firefighters arrived.

The flames were so intense, they even spread to a neighboring home.

Alliance Fire Chief Jason Hunt said the call came in at 12:10 pm for “two houses were on fire with people possibly trapped on the front porch roof.”

Those two people managed to escaped, but the person who neighbors said was living in the home tragically never made it out.

Stephanie Swank’s brother knows the victims, “They started smelling smoke and they saw flames and two of our friends jumped out the window.”

Chief Hunt confirmed that two people managed to get to safety, “When we showed up those two residents had already gotten down [off the roof]. They indicated there was a third person in the home that did not follow them, but, they could see them in the window.”

A ladder truck from Sebring Fire was called into help extinguish the raging fire, that was so intense it made it impossible for firefighters to go inside.

“When we got here there was fire showing in every window and door in the house,” Chief Hunt said.

In an effort to protect the house next door from further damage, a backhoe was brought in to level the home that was destroyed by fire.

Chief Hunt tells 19 News, “I cannot express how much fire was showing. For a midday fire it was a little unique it got such a head start on us.”

Fire investigators are urging anyone with security camera footage or information related to the fire to please contact Inspector Guy Aumend at 330-821-1213.

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