Tuesday, December 28, 1999
Dad, 2 daughters die in Brown Co. blaze
Neighbor pulled mother to safety
BY TOM O'NEILL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Bob Lawless of Ironton, Ohio, with the investigations bureau of the state fire marshall's office, looks through the rubble in the kitchen at the scene of the fire Monday.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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ABERDEEN, Ohio — Water from firefighters' hoses turned to icicles, clinging like frozen tears to the burned-out roof of an Aberdeen home where a man and his two young daughters died early Monday.
The fire, which started in the kitchen of the Winkle- Moore home at 3:14 a.m., killed William Winkle, 55, and his two daughters, Shayla Moore, 4, and Cailyn Moore, 1.
The cause remains under investigation, Tom Ratcliff, spokesman for the state fire marshal's office in Columbus, said Monday afternoon. The home, at 895 U.S. 52, had a smoke detector, but it was not immediately clear whether it was working.
Mr. Winkle's cries of “Fire, fire!” apparently saved the life of the girls' mother, Millie Moore, 28, who was asleep on the second floor. She was pulled from a window by her next-door neighbor, Ken Shelton.
Seconds earlier, Ms. Moore tried desperately to pry open the bedroom window while holding her daughter Shayla's hand, Ms. Moore told Aber deen Police Chief Joe Sprague.
But Ms. Moore needed both hands to remove plastic covering and, in the pitch-dark smoke, she and her daughter got separated.
“It was solid black,” Chief Sprague said as he stood under a light snowfall, near the remnants of the home encircled by yellow police tape. “Smoke was billowing out that window when I pulled up.”
Mr. Shelton used a ladder to rescue Ms. Moore from the roof of the front porch, from which the family had strung Christmas lights.
Ms. Moore, who struggled with Mr. Shelton to get back through the window to save her children, was treated at Meadowview Regional Medical Center in nearby Maysville, Ky.
Mr. Shelton and Yvonne James of Oklahoma, who was staying with Ms. Moore's mother, Judy Clark, next door, also were discharged Monday following treatment there for smoke inhalation. Ms. James tried to enter the home through a first-floor window, but was repelled by smoke and flames.
A newspaper file photo of Shayla Moore, 4, of Aberdeen, Ohio, who died in Monday's fire.
(Bob Warner/The Ledger-Independent)
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Neighbors in this small Brown County town along the Ohio River expressed devastation at the loss of three of their own, particularly the girls, who brightened the nearby Buckeye convenience store with their rosy cheeks and endless smiles.
Polite and always accompanied by their mother, they typically bought snack cakes and milk.
“In a small town, we're all family,” said Buckeye manager Dara Ward, 28, whose store is a half-block from the Moores' home.
“You know what everyone orders,” she said. “You see them coming and just put it on the counter. That baby was always in her mother's arms.”
Mr. Winkle, who worked for a Cincinnati-area firm that contracts with Procter & Gamble, wanted that kind of life. He'd once owned a farm here and commuted 60 miles west each work day to Cincinnati.
Mr. Winkle typically left for work at 4:30 a.m. His body was found on a downstairs couch, and authorities theorize he might have been getting ready for work when the fire broke out.
Shayla, who was the only one sleeping downstairs, somehow made it up the stairs to her mother's bedroom, where she died with her infant sister.
The couple, who were together about seven years but not married, moved into the A-frame with the white-picket fence six months ago.
On Nov. 2, the local Ledger-Independent newspaperof Maysville ran a feature photo of Shayla painting that fence, kneeling before a bucket of white paint. It was an unseasonably warm day.
“The little girl would always ride her tricycle up and down this street,” recalled neighbor Brandi Thomas, 25. “She was so cute.”
The back of the home was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived, Aberdeen Fire Chief Jerry Lang said.
The loss was particularly hard on the all-volunteer Aberdeen Fire Department, which hadn't had a fatal fire since the death of a teacher15 years ago, Chief Lang said. It was their first-ever triple fatality.
And Monday's early-morning tragedy hit home for two other reasons: Daniel Williams and Brent Applegate.
They're the firefighters who carried the girls' bodies out of the home.
Both have young children.
“You never get used to this,” said Chief Lang, who previously served on the Aberdeen Police Department for 37 years. “You never get used to this.”
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