Pictured is the burned-out shell of a house at Monaville where five people died early Thursday morning in a house fire. A mother, her three children and her boyfriend were all killed in the fire. Photo/Michael Browning
Killed in the fire were 30-year-old Melinda Daley; her daughter, 11-year-old Kaitlyn; a 9-year-old son, Randy; and her youngest son, Trey, 2. Melinda Daley’s boyfriend, Dewayne Ellis, was also killed in the fire.
West Virginia State Police Sgt. Michael Baylous said this morning that the investigation into the fire by the WVSP and the state fire marshal’s office is ongoing and a cause of the fire is still undetermined.
“The bodies have been sent to the state medical examiner’s office for identification purposes,” Baylous said. “Yesterday, I spoke to the first sergeant in that district and he said they had not made a determination yet and that the fire marshal’s office is investigating.”
A report on www.wsaz.com said a fire chief at the scene said there were no working smoke detectors in the home. A source at the scene said that all the bodies were found on the first floor near the front of the house.
A resident of the area who was on the scene yesterday morning said he estimated the old coal camp boss’s house, built by Island Creek Coal and later owned by Carlos Lopes, could have been built in the early 1900s and was at least 60 years old.
The call to Logan firefighters came in at 5:03 a.m. Thursday and, according to Logan Fire Chief Scott Beckett, the house had fire venting from the roof by the time his crews and the Main Island Creek Fire Department firemen arrived on the scene.
“When we got there, fire was venting through the roof and the front,” Beckett said yesterday morning as he and the firefighters were leaving the scene. “It was about 30 minutes into the fire before we could confirm anyone was in there. Due to the magnitude of the fire, they were gone before we got here. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and this is the worst set of fatalities I’ve seen.”
Timothy Meade, who identified himself as the cousin of Ellis, said Ellis had moved in with Melinda Daley a month ago. He said Daley and her three children had moved there in August of 2008.
Several City of Logan firefighters and firemen from the Main Island Creek Fire Department worked to extinguish the fire.
State Route 44 was shut down for nearly two hours.
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