CLEVELAND — Two children have died following a weekend fire on Cleveland’s west side.
It was around 12:30 a.m. Sunday when firefighters responded to a working fire in the 1400 block of West 54th Street, between Franklin Blvd. and Detroit Ave.
A total of five adults and three children were taken to the hospital. Those who died were 9-year-old twins, according to Lt. Mike Norman, the public information officer for the Cleveland Division of Fire. Norman also said he believes the third child may have been an infant.
The twins have been identified as Myla and Rayfeair Leary.
Norman said there were no working smoke detectors in the residence, which he described as a large house with separate units.
"This house did not have working smoke alarms to my knowledge, and so the residents were not notified and it really puts us against the clock in terms of what we’re trying to do," he said. "Modern furnishes in these houses, they’re all plastics based, they burn quicker, they burn hotter, the smoke is more toxic. It just makes our job more challenging.”
He also said the cause of the fire is electrical.
Norman said the fire division has a partnership with the American Red Cross' Operation Save-A-Life to provide and install smoke alarms in homes.
"When we have a fatal fire like we had on Sunday morning, we’ll come out to the neighborhood and canvas the neighborhood, make sure that people are aware of that program," he said. "Any Cleveland fire station has smoke alarm batteries if people need batteries for their smoke alarms."
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Editor's note: Video in the player above was originally published in an unrelated story on Dec. 7, 2021.
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