Dayton Assistant Fire Chief Michael Caudill said Strickland and Turner likely died of smoke inhalation, but the Montgomery County Coroner's Office has yet to rule on the cause of death. The fire started in the middle room of the main floor of the duplex, at 67 Pinehurst Ave. Strickland was found near the locked back door and Turner was found in a bedroom directly above where the fire started, Caudill said, noting that neither victim was breathing or had a pulse when medics arrived.
"We tried to gain access and get to those people as quickly as we could," he said.
Crews arrived on scene just after 1 a.m. Thursday in seven minutes from Station 4 at 300 N. Main St., not from Station 14 at 2213 N. Main St., which is only a half-mile from the Pinehurst duplex, Caudill said.
"The time difference would have been very minimal, within a couple minutes," he said. "With the situation we found, it was very, very unlikely it would have made any difference... By the time we got there it was too late to help either one."
Dispatch records indicate Station 14 was called out at 1 a.m. to a home on Ravenwood Avenue on a report of a rug and door possibly set on fire. That call was cleared at 3:05 a.m.
"We believe smoking is very likely the cause," Caudill said, declining to say who may have been smoking. "When our crews got there, they saw a pretty strong orange glow. Basically, it's when all of the belongings, all the furniture in the room is reaching its ignition temperature, it gets some air and it all starts burning at once."
Stewart described how she woke up coughing and opened her window on the second floor of the structure, built in 1925, before yelling for Turner, who was in a different room upstairs.
"I went back to open the door and the smoke hit my face and I just literally ran and jumped out the window," Stewart said. "When I was on my way out, I was like, 'Ricky!' and he was like, 'What?' A fire.
"When I was jumping out, he bust out the window. I jumped out. I heard the cat and the dog dying and then I was up there yelling for somebody to help everybody."
Stewart said she climbed to the roof above the porch of the other side of the duplex and came down her neighbor's stairs and back outside. The neighbor then called 911.
"When I got to the door, all I saw was flames and that's when (firefighters) pulled me back," Stewart said while crying. "I was really going to go in."
Strickland worked as a home health aide, Stewart said.
"Tia was a wonderful person, a loving person, a wonderful mother, a wonderful friend," said Stewart, who'd been dating Strickland for five years. "She was great at helping people. She loved taking care of people. She would break her neck to help people. She was the perfect girlfriend."
Strickland's oldest son, Darryl Booker, blames himself for not being there to protect his family: "It's like everything I care about is just falling apart."
Booker, whose ex-girlfriend is pregnant, said his mother was happy about the prospect of being a grandmother.
"That's all she talked about," he said. "She was more excited about it than I am."
Zahki Walker, a teen living nearby who said he was Turner's cousin, said Turner was like his brother.
"I'm in shock. It's unbelievable," Walker said. "My head is going through a lot right now."
Dayton Public Schools spokeswoman Jill Moberley said Thursday that Turner was an eighth-grader at Edwin Joel Brown PreK-8 School, a short walk from Turner's house on Pinehurst Avenue. Moberley said a crisis team was available for staff and students who wanted to discuss the tragedy.
Late Thursday morning, a burned couch and tables were in the yard near the duplex and the deceased pets were in a container on the porch. By Thursday afternoon, a makeshift memorial was forming.
Caudill reminded people that non-working smoking detectors can be dangerous.
"We did find two smoke detectors in the building and don't believe either was in working condition," he said. "Smoke detectors save lives. They do save lives all the time."
The area's last fire that caused multiple fatalities was a December blaze on Kettering's Craig Drive. That fire claimed the lives of Alicia Mobley, her sons Shaun Mobley Jr. and Jacob Mobley, and her father, Forrest Carroll.
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