Fire Claims Ohio Toddler; Mother and Child Injured

MARION, Ohio – Brittany Price said she was barely dressed, her feet were freezing and she was choking on smoke when she frantically called 911 for help yesterday morning.

Worse, her children, ages 3 and 1, and a friend were still inside the trailer home south of Marion as smoke and flames poured out.

“My house is on fire. I can’t breathe,” Price screamed into the phone. “My house is up in flames. My kids are inside. I can hear them screaming.”

The dispatcher, apparently misunderstanding the call from the Fountain Place Mobile Home Park, 3068 Marion-Waldo Rd., relayed the call to the Pleasant Township Fire Department as a woman having trouble breathing.

Two minutes later, Price, 23, said, “You don’t understand, my house is literally up in flames.”

“Your house is on fire?” asked the dispatcher, who changed the assignment to a working fire with a trapped child.

Officials removed the wrapped body of 3-year-old Brayden Blevins about three hours later.

Rescuers took Price to Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, where she was treated for smoke inhalation and released. Brian Price, 1, was treated at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, which would not release his condition. Cheyenne Smith, 19, was in fair condition at Wexner Medical Center with serious cuts to her hands. She is to have surgery today, said Pleasant Township Fire Chief Clint Canterbury.

“The victim was found in a bedroom, where it appears the fire started,” Canterbury said. There were no space heaters, and the wiring was intact, investigators reported.

The home was being rented and had no working smoke detectors, officials said.

The fire broke out just before 6:45 a.m. Blood could be seen near two of the mobile home’s windows, indicating a desperate rescue attempt before firefighters arrived, the chief added.

By the time rescuers arrived, flames were shooting out of three windows and the front door, Canterbury said. Any attempt to go back inside, especially without protective gear, would have been futile, he said.

“Until you’re in that situation and that heat … it can reach upwards of 1,000 degrees in there,” he said. “I don’t care how much our will is, our body won’t let us do certain things.”

The state fire marshal’s office is helping to determine the cause, but the investigation could be hampered by the damage to the structure, Canterbury said.

This was the first fatal fire in the township in more than 21 years, he said.

Brayden was very close to Brittany’s dad, said a family friend who didn’t want to be identified. He was “a wonderful child, very well-behaved. He was Paw-Paw’s shadow.”

dnarciso@dispatch.com

@DeanNarciso