Wednesday, July 22, 1998BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CFD recruits head out across California Avenue in response to Monday's fire deaths.
(Glenn Hartong photos)
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Lauren Renneker felt an immediate connection to the story of the Bond Hill mother who died in a fire Monday with two of her children. "That could have very easily been me," the Blue Ash woman said.
Nine years ago, she was the one screaming for her children as her home burned to the ground. Two nights after moving into the Delhi Township home, an electrical fire ignited while they slept. The smoke detector in the garage, the only one in the house that worked, woke them.
"Thanks to that one smoke detector, we survived."
Giving out smoke detectors, recruits Trent Hull, left, and Andrew Edrich show some to Laura Hampton of Bond Hill.
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Jennifer Crawford was not so lucky. Firefighters found her smoke detector Tuesday beneath the wreckage of the fire in a kitchen cabinet. Someone had taken it down.
Ms. Crawford, 32, a mother of four, died along with Jai-Hali, her 3-month-old son, and Afrika, her 2-year-old daughter. A candle burning because the electricity had gone out started the blaze in the living room.
Firefighters went door to door in her neighborhood Tuesday giving away about 200 smoke detectors and batteries.
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TO HELP
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Donations -- cash , smoke detectors or batteries, can be sent to the fire division in care of Cincinnati's Fire Education Fun No. 343, 430 Central Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.
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"It's amazing how many people do not have working smoke detectors," Assistant Fire Chief David Hill said.
Firefighters reminded people that it is city law for building owners to provide smoke detectors and for tenants to maintain them. Mrs. Renneker called Chief Hill after hearing of the donations to ask how to help.
