COSHOCTON- Four children and two adults died Tuesday in two separate fires in Ohio, authorities said.
Three juveniles died and a fourth was injured in a barn fire in Coshocton County early Tuesday morning, and two adults and a child died later in the morning in a Licking County house fire near the Perry County village of Thornville, according to state and local authorities.
Capt. Dave Stone of the Warsaw-based Walhonding Valley Fire District says the three children who died in the barn fire reported shortly before 7:30 a.m. were ages 12-15. The injured juvenile, whose age wasn’t immediately known, was hospitalized, Stone said. He said the juveniles were having a sleepover at the barn where they apparently were building a clubhouse.
“When we got there the structure was a total loss. It was on the ground,” Stone said.
His fire department, along with the Coshocton County Sheriff’s Office and the State Fire Marshal’s Office removed the bodies. No names had been released, and the condition of the injured teen wasn’t immediately known.
Two adults and a child died in the house fire reported shortly before 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in Licking County, according to Brian Bohnert, a spokesman for the State Fire Marshal’s Office.
“We believe that fire originated in the kitchen area,” he said, adding that there was nothing suspicious about the blaze. Bohnert said only one smoke alarm was found in the home, and it wasn’t functioning.
Investigators were trying to determine what caused both fires.
