UPDATE @ 9:03 a.m. 3/1/16:
Services have been set for the 10-year-old killed in a fire in Huber Heights last week.
A visitation will be held on Thursday, March 3 from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. at Newcomer Funeral Home, 4104 Needmore Road, and a burial service will follow at Fairfield Cemetery in Fairborn.
Memorial donations can be made to the Tabitha Whetstone Memorial Fund at Wright-Patt Credit Union.
UPDATE @ 2:46 p.m. 2/26/16:
Counselors have been at Huber Heights city schools since Monday’s fire and yesterday’s death of Tabitha Whetstone.
“It’s been very hard as you can imagine when you lose anybody, but when you lose a child it’s extremely hard,” said Sue Gunnell, superintendent at Huber Heights City Schools.
Gunnell said Tabitha Whetstone was a fourth grader at Monticello Elementary and that school’s parent teacher organization is collecting money to donate to the family to help pay for funeral expenses for the 10-year-old.
“It’s certainly been a tragedy,” Gunnell said.
UPDATE @ 12:52 p.m. 2/25/16:
Tabitha Whetstone, 10, died from her injuries sustained in a house fire Monday, according to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office.
Tabitha Whetstone was pronounced dead at shortly after 11 a.m., the coroner’s office said.
UPDATE @ 9:16 a.m. 2/24/16:
Tabitha Whetstone, 10, remains in critical condition at Dayton Children’s, while her brother Daniel Whetstone, 4, has been upgraded to serious condition.
UPDATE @4;20 a.m. 2/24/16: Brandy Tripodi remains in critical condition at Miami Valley Hospital. Her two children, Daniel Whetsone, 4, and Tabitha Whetstone, 10, are in critical condition at Dayton Chidlren's, according to a hospital spokesperson.
UPDATE @ 5:39 p.m. 2/23/16:
Brandy Tripodi remains in critical condition in the Miami Valley Hospital burn unit, her sister, Dara Lynn Hall, said.
UPDATE @ 2:50 p.m.
Two children injured in a Huber Heights home fire Monday remained in critical condition this afternoon.
Four-year-old Daniel Whetstone and his sister, Tabitha, 10, are in the intensive care unit of Dayton Children’s Hospital, where they were admitted Monday after a fire on Hemingway Road, officials said.
The status of their mother, 39-year-old Brandy Tripodi, was unclear. She was taken to Miami Valley Hospital and initially reported in critical condition, but hospital officials said Tuesday afternoon she was not listed as a patient.
The children’s conditions indicate they may be unconscious with unfavorable indicators and/or their vital signs may be unstable and not within normal limits, a Dayton Children’s spokeswoman said Tuesday afternoon.
EARLIER
Quick-thinking neighbors are credited with helping a Huber Heights woman and two of her children escape after a fire broke out in a home that may not have had working smoke detectors.
Neighbor Craig Christensen said he saw smoke at about 9 a.m. Monday coming from the windows of a home in the 6400 block of Hemingway Road.
He described a frightening scene when he and his wife went to the front of the house and saw a woman hanging out of the home’s second-story window.
“I told her to jump and she wouldn’t jump,” Christensen said. His wife suggested grabbing their ladder to help the victims. By that time, flames were seen shooting out the back of the house, he said.
Fire crews arrived on the scene as Christensen was setting up the ladder and they took over, climbing up and rescuing Brandy Tripodi, 39, and two of her children, ages 4 and 10.
“That’s an old ladder. I’ve had it forever,” Christensen said. “It’s never been used for anything like that, and when I seen two firefighters going up and down it carrying bodies … that ladder paid for itself.”
The family was trapped in a bedroom on the second floor after flames broke out in a room on the opposite side of the second floor, according to Huber Heights Fire Chief Mark Ashworth.
“The neighbor was doing what neighbors do and I applaud the neighbors for doing that; they definitely helped the crews out,” Ashworth said. “They put up a good sturdy ladder. That’s one less task that the crews have to deal with. It made our jobs a lot easier and expedited the rescue that much quicker.”
Tripodi was taken to Miami Valley Hospital. The children were taken to Dayton Children’s Hospital. All three were listed in critical condition Monday.
First responders who arrived on the scene did not hear smoke detectors going off, according to fire officials. One inoperable smoke detector was found in the basement, they said.
“There’s nothing more heart-wrenching than to get the phone call your family’s been involved in a house fire,” Ashworth said.
Taylor Whetstone, 18, of Huber Heights, said it was her mother and younger brother and sister who were injured in their rental home. Their father was at work at the time, she said.
“Make sure that you have smoke detectors in the house because things like this do happen out of nowhere and it can destroy a lot stuff, including families and hurt people,” Whetstone said.
Fire officials said the blaze does not appear suspicious, but the cause has not been determined. The State Fire Marshal’s Office is assisting in the investigation.
Mutual aid was received from Dayton, Riverside, Fairborn and Vandalia fire departments.
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