This fatal fire comes one year after Middletown recorded no fire deaths, according to Middletown fire officials. There were two fatal fires in the city in 2017 and 2016, according to fire records.
Deputy Chief Jeff Spaulding said the investigation in the Eleventh Avenue fire is continuing and it appears there was no operational smoke detectors in Frazier’s house.
That also was the case on March 11 when James “Butch” Gann, 71, died in a fire on Sixth Avenue. Gann was in a wheelchair and was unable to escape the fire, according to Middletown Fire Chief Paul Lolli. There was a smoke detector in the residence but it apparently wasn’t functioning, according to the fire report.
In late August, John Mobley, 59, who had been a patient at Miami Valley Hospital since the Aug. 17 fire on Carroll Avenue in Middletown, died. A working smoke detector alerted Mobley and others in the house of the fire, the fire report read.
This is National Fire Prevention Month, a time for residents to check their smoke detectors to assure they’re working, Spaulding said.
“It’s about prevention,” he said.
State Fire Marshal Jeff Hussey recently wrote he was “deeply concerned” with the number of residential fire fatalities in Ohio this year. More than 100 residents have died in house fires each of the last two years, he wrote.
So far this year, more than 90 Ohioans have died in fires, a sharp increase over prior years. In many of these cases, there were no working smoke alarms. Either the battery was missing, or the smoke alarms weren’t present, he wrote.
“I’m frustrated because I believe people know the importance of these life-saving devices; yet they continue to ignore the proper installation and maintenance of alarms in their homes,” he wrote.
While the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) estimates that 94 percent of U.S. homes have at least one smoke alarm, 50 percent of the home fire deaths occur in the 6 percent of homes with no smoke alarms. Homes with smoke alarms typically have a death rate that is 40-50 percent less than the rate for homes without alarms, according to the NFPA.
In the fire on Eleventh Avenue, a local resident, Donald Simms, saw smoke at the house and kicked the door in to try and locate Frazier. He wrapped his face due to the smoke and crawled on his hands and knees but was unable to find Frazier before first responders arrived. They told him to stop searching.
After learning there was someone inside the house, firefighters entered and quickly located Frazier, according to Middletown Deputy Fire Chief Brent Dominy.
It appears Frazier, a smoker, tried to extinguish the fire that started in his bedroom, then burned through the floor and catch a mattress in the basement on fire. Spaulding said the fire spread “very, very quickly” and it became “too much for him.”
Frazier was found in his bathroom, Spaulding said.
When there’s a fire, Spaulding said, residents need to leave their house immediately, then call 911.
The house suffered “extensive smoke damage,” Spaulding said.
About the Author