1 person, dog killed in Dayton house fire

The Dayton Fire Department was dispatched at 7:50 p.m. Monday to the fire at 146 Bierce Ave.

A 911 caller initially told dispatchers there was thick smoke, flames were shooting out the front window and that the house where two disabled men lived was engulfed, according to Montgomery County Regional Dispatch Center records.

The first companies to respond to the two-story house found “heavy fire conditions showing from the first floor and a report of a possible occupant still inside,” according to a release from Dayton Fire Capt. Brad French.

Crews entered the house to search for occupants and control the fire. They quickly found one victim on the first floor, but it was determined that the victim had suffered nonsurvivable injuries.

The victim’s name has not been released.

A deceased dog also was found during a search of the house, the captain said.

Further details revealed that significant fire and smoke damage was throughout the house. It took around four hours for crews to get the fire under control.

Additionally, crews said that there were “hoarder conditions” inside the house.

The fire remains under investigation. Anyone with information is urged to contact the fire department’s Fire Investigation Unit at 937-333-8477.

The first fatal fire of the year was March 5 in the 300 block of Ashwood Avenue.

When crews arrived, flames were showing. A woman, 71-year-old Darlene Alston, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Three days later, the bodies of five people were recovered following a large fire in the 500 block of North Broadway Street.

Smoke was visible from more than a mile away. When crews arrived, they found the two-story house with heavy fire coming from back on both floors. Crews went inside to search for any occupants, but within four minutes the incident commander ordered all crews to come out due to the intense fire conditions and a collapse.

The first body was found when crews began an emergency demolition. That was immediately halted and cadaver dogs and the coroner’s office was called to the scene. By 9:45 p.m., five bodies were recovered in what the fire department called “one of the most tragic fire incidents for loss of life in the history of the city of Dayton.”