Ind. man jumps out window after getting trapped in burning home; his girlfriend, 2 kids die

Man escapes burning home; girlfriend, 2 kids die

INDIANAPOLIS — A man trying to find a way out his burning home got trapped in its bathroom Saturday and could only listen in horror to the screams of two of his children, who died in the fire along with his girlfriend, friends and authorities said. The man escaped by breaking a window and jumping out.

Daniel Fox, 37, told fire investigators he ran into the first-floor bathroom of the two-story rental house, looking for a way out for himself and the three others after the blaze broke out around 6 a.m. But the door, which had no doorknob, closed behind him and he couldn’t open it.

Fox’s children apparently were overcome by smoke as they pounded on the door, yelling for their father during the chaos of the fire, which Fox escaped by smashing out a small bathroom window and jumping out, said Capt. Rita Reith of the Indianapolis Fire Department.

Family friend David Wethington said Fox, bleeding from cuts from the broken glass, tried to re-enter the burning home on Indianapolis’ east side but was driven back by dense smoke and flames shooting from its windows.

He said Fox is anguished that he couldn’t save his children and girlfriend.

“They were screaming, saying, “Help, help, help!” Wethington said. “He heard them hollering and he tried to get in there. He’s dying inside because he couldn’t get to them in time. It’s killing him that he couldn’t save his own kids.”

Fox’s girlfriend, Cheryl Strong, 32, and his 16-year-old son, Michael Fox, died at the scene, while his 8-year-old daughter, Kelsey Fox, was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Wethington said Fox’s children lived with Fox’s mother and usually visited their father on weekends. Fox also has a teenager daughter, who did not make the trip this weekend.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, but Reith said Fox told investigators he believes an electric space heater started the blaze.

In the fire’s aftermath, passers-by stopped to look at the gutted home, which was surrounded by scorched shingles, pieces of wood and children’s books, the heavy snowfall around the home blackened with soot and firefighters’ footprints.

A large plush Scooby-Doo doll wearing a wizard’s cape sat on the deck that Fox jumped onto from the bathroom window, partially covered with fire debris.

The home’s owner and next-door neighbor, 78-year-old Donald LaRue, said Fox and Strong had moved into the home about 6 months ago and were a friendly, quiet couple.

He said neighbors pounded on his door, yelling that the property next door was on fire, and he helped them break out the window in the home’s back door, but the smoke was too dense to enter and flames were shooting out of the windows.

“It’s a horrible thing,” LaRue said, his voice choking with emotion.

Reith said LaRue told fire investigators he had provided the home with working smoke detectors but that his tenants often took the batteries out for other uses. She said it wasn’t clear if the home had functioning smoke detectors.

Jessica Johnson, who lives two houses from the gutted house with her husband and their two young children, said she was shaken by the tragedy, although she did not know the home’s residents.

She and her husband ran outside in 15-degree weather when they heard a commotion and saw the home engulfed in flames, later watching as a body was removed from the house.

“I can’t even imagine what it must be like for him, to know that there was nothing he could do,” Johnson said of Fox.