COLUMBUS – A fire in an East Side townhome that claimed the life of a woman Saturday was determined to be accidental, caused by unattended oil cooking on a stove.
Two adult males and one adult female were in the apartment at 1101 Lancer Way, in the Carnaby Village townhome complex, when a pan of cooking oil that was recently used and left unattended ignited just before 4:30 p.m., Columbus Division of Fire spokesman Battalion Chief Steve Martin.
Fire investigators found that several witness statements matched up with forensic evidence and videos of the events leading up to the fire and actions taken afterward, Martin said.
The fire caused a smoke alarm to go off and Martin says one of the men went downstairs where he saw the flames and tried to put them out but failed so he ran back upstairs to alert the other two occupants of the home.
While the men made it down the stairs and escaped, the woman was afraid of the thick smoke and refused to come down, Martin said.
“The men then urged the woman to jump out of the window which she wasn’t able to do,” Martin said.
“The nature of cooking oil acting as accelerant as well as weather conditions which resulted in a wind tunnel between the apartment buildings created an untenable environment in just a few minutes,” he said.
Firefighters who arrived on the scene less than four minutes after the first call were met with flames that filled the first and second floor windows of the home and were not able to rescue the trapped woman, Martin said.
The fire was contained to the first apartment and one neighboring unit but Martin says, due to high levels of carbon monoxide in the entire building, all eight units in the building had to be evacuated for the night.
Investigators are waiting for the coroner’s report to confirm the identity of the victim before releasing her name.
She is the fourth fire fatality in Columbus this year, Martin said.