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1964 - 1992
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- DEATH: Burned in house fire.
OBIT: CARUTH, TAMARA L : Wife of Michael (Obit.). Plain Dealer 11 Dec, 1992, pg. 11 sec. C
Tamara Caruth, 28, killed in Brecksville home fire, had called 9-1-1 Plain Dealer 10 Dec, 1992, pg. 02 sec. B
Tamara Caruth, 28, and her children, Brennan, 4, and Brittany, 3, die in Brecksville home fire Plain Dealer 09 Dec, 1992, pg. 02 sec. B
OBIT: MOM, CHILDREN DIE IN FIRE FAST-MOVING BLAZE ENGULFS HOUSE AS 2 OTHERS ESCAPE
Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)December 9, 1992
Author: RONALD RUTTI PLAIN DEALER REPORTER
OBIT: A mother and her two young children were killed in a fire that quickly engulfed a Brecksville home yesterday morning.
OBIT: The victims were Tamara L. Caruth, 28, and her children, Brennan, 4, and Brittany, 3. They had lived in the house on Daisy Ave. only a few weeks.
OBIT: Two other residents, homeowner Dennis King and his daughter Chris, 20, escaped uninjured. Another resident of the house, Sandy Sheley, Tamara Caruth's mother, was at work.
OBIT: Brecksville officials and neighbors said Caruth had moved in with her mother for what was to be a temporary arrangement. Sheley has been living in the house for a couple of years, police said.
The fire started just before 9 a.m. Robert Davis of the state fire marshal's office said it started in a first-floor sunroom that faced a valley at the rear of the house. Davis said that investigators had not found the cause but that the fire was accidental.
OBIT: A neighbor, Bill Foss, said firefighters reported the house went up like a tinderbox. One Brecksville firefighter said the entire house was in flames when they arrived.
OBIT: Police Chief Dennis Kancler said the home had a tin roof that apparently kept flames contained until the home's windows blew out.
OBIT: The blue frame house is set back about 90 yards from the road, largely hidden by trees and a storage shed. It is only a few blocks from the center of Brecksville and the fire station.
OBIT: "I woke up to screams," said a neighbor, Connie Rondeau. "I looked out and there were flames shooting higher than the trees."
OBIT: Rondeau said she and her husband saw Chris King, dressed in pajamas, coming down the driveway, screaming. Rondeau said the young woman wanted to return to the burning house, but they forced her into their home. Soon, Chris' father came down the long driveway. Rondeau said he was in a panic. He, too, wore only pajamas. The Rondeaus took him into their home.
OBIT: Rondeau said Chris King told her she had been awakened in her upstairs bedroom by 4-year-old Brennan yelling. Chris said that was not unusual.
OBIT: Rondeau said the woman then noticed a fine white smoke coming from the main floor. She told Rondeau she went to tell her father about the smoke. He slept in a bedroom above the garage, away from the main part of the house.
OBIT: Rondeau said that by the time the Kings headed back, the smoke was too thick for them to enter.
Rondeau said Dennis King last saw Tamara Caruth standing at a bathroom window on the top floor of the home. She either would not or could not jump out. King was standing outside.
Kancler said it is believed Caruth made the first call to 9-1-1 reporting the fire.
OBIT: Independence and Broadview Heights firefighters assisted the Brecksville department. They found the three bodies in a hallway outside the bathroom on the second floor. Cuyahoga County Coroner Elizabeth Balraj said it appeared the three died of smoke inhalation.
OBIT: Fire Chief Russell Clark did not have a damage estimate but said it appeared the house had been destroyed. The first and second floors were gutted.
OBIT: King has lived there more than 20 years. He owns D.E. King & Son, a heating contracting company. Neighbors and firefighters said the recently remodeled home was rich in wood paneling.
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