Fire marshal: 5 dead, 7 injured in southern Ohio house fire; cause not yet known

Fire marshal: 5 dead, 7 injured in Ohio house fire

BARTLES, Ohio — A fire swept through a large house in far southern Ohio early Monday, killing five people, the state fire marshal’s office said.

Seven other people were reported injured, fire marshal spokesman Shane Cartmill said. A Lawrence County emergency dispatcher said six people were hospitalized from the fire, which was reported around 2:15 a.m. in Elizabeth Township, 93 miles southeast of Columbus.

A neighbor told Huntington, W.Va., station WSAZ-TV that two people who lived in the home came to her house to call 911, including a young man who said he escaped by jumping from a second-floor window.

The fire marshal’s office could not immediately provide the identities, ages or sexes of the victims, Cartmill said.

According to the dispatcher, the home had 12 bedrooms, but he was unable to say if it was a rooming house or other multiple-family dwelling. He also could not say how many people lived there.

Investigators were trying to determine what the living arrangements were, as well as how and where the fire started, Cartmill said.