Cincinnati fire kills 3 children
Three children, all under the age of 10, were killed when a fire swept through their house early Monday, fire officials said.
The children’s parents escaped. Their father jumped off the porch roof of the two-story house and was trying to coax one of his children to do the same when the roof collapsed, fire Capt. Mike Washington said.
"When one of the battalion chiefs arrived in his car, he saw the girl on the roof of the porch," he said. "She was lost in the fire."
The children were 2-year-old Robert Joseph Hulett, 5-year-old Jasmine Hulett and 9-year-old Julia Hulett, according to the Hamilton County coroner’s office.
ADVERTISEMENT
Two fire crews arrived at the house in Cincinnati’s Lower Price Hill neighborhood around 2:30 a.m. about two minutes after a series of 911 phone calls, Washington said. More than 50 firefighters battled the blaze.
"It’s going upstairs and my husband’s trying to put it out. My living room is on fire and my kids are upstairs," said April Hulett, the mother, in a frantic 911 call.
All three bodies were found inside after the blaze was extinguished, with one on the first floor and the other two on the second floor.
The children’s father, Robert Hulett, was in serious condition with burns, according to University Hospital. He had leaped from the porch roof.
The cause of the fire has not been determined.
