Fire crews responded to the blaze around 6:30 a.m. after a Cincinnati police officer on patrol noticed smoke coming from the porch of the single-family home and called it in, according to the Cincinnati Fire Department.
Robin Valdez, Koch’s next-door neighbor, was inside her home, unaware of the fire, when she said she heard the police officer banging on Koch’s front door.
“I feel that God sent the police officer down our street, because, if not, it would have been seven o’clock by the time we would have come out, and it probably would have burnt, got to our house,” Valdez said. “So I see it as a miracle that God sent that police officer to the street.”
CFD has responded to nearly two dozen residential fires so far this year. Seven people have died in five of those fires. The deadliest incident happened on Jan. 17, when three people died inside a Spring Grove home.
CFD Assistant Fire Chief Matt Flagler said it’s an alarming number.
“(It’s) an extremely high number for us. We’ve never seen this before, not in the grouping like this in 25 years,” Flagler said.
As CFD analyzes data on the fires, Flager said his team has already identified one commonality between the victims.
“Almost all of the victims are a little bit advanced in years. That’s really the only common factor that we have right now. Obviously, it’s a subject of intense interest inside the fire department,” Flagler said.
The repeated deaths have taken an emotional toll on Cincinnati firefighters, Flagler said.
“Our firefighters are can-do people. We go in all the time, expecting to win, and when we don’t win, you know, when we’re dealing with fatalities, it is seen as a point of failure, really. It’s hard, but we have great people. We’re never going to stop trying. If anything, it motivates us even harder, to search better, to practice,” he said.
The cause of the fire at Koch’s home remains undetermined, and investigators are still determining whether smoke detectors were present in the home. Flager said smoke detectors are life-saving devices that every home should have.
“A smoke detector gives you the gift of time. So if you have a working smoke detector in your house, you are way ahead if there’s ever an incident,” Flagler said.
Valdez said she had developed a protective relationship with Koch and other elderly neighbors since buying her home. She said she had been monitoring Koch, who suffered from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, through a camera system she installed that would alert her phone when he left his house.
Valez described Koch as a hard-working, friendly man.
“I remember when we had first bought our home, when, before any of his medical problems started, he would always talk about how on Thursday he would go out and pick his daughter up and go out,” Valdez said. “They would go walking and eat. And that was really special to him.”
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