PROCTORVILLE, Ohio – Investigators with the State Fire Marshal’s Office are asking for tips in their investigation of a fire, set off by illegal fireworks, which killed an elderly southern Ohio couple on Saturday.
A man and woman, both in their 70s, were killed in Proctorville, in Lawrence County, Fire Marshal Larry Flowers’s office said in a statement Saturday.
The man escaped the flames but went back inside to try to rescue his bedridden wife and both died, Flowers’s office says.
Investigators with the Fire and Explosion Investigation Bureau said the Rome Fire Department responded to the scene after witnesses called 911 around 1:30 a.m. to report that the home was on fire.
Investigators say the suspected cause of the fire is “the illegal use of 1.4g fireworks in the area.” Debris from the fireworks has been found in the neighborhood and more evidence is being collected, they said.
The investigators believe the fire started when hot embers from illegal aerial fireworks fell into combustible material next to the back of the home.
A criminal investigation is being conducted in conjunction with the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office and the Rome Fire Department.
Flowers’s office says positive identification and the causes of death would be released by the Lawrence County coroner.
Anyone who saw something out of the ordinary at or around the time of the fire, or who “may have heard someone speaking about the fire with an unusual level of interest or knowledge” is asked to call the State Fire Marshal’s at 1-800-589-2728.