Wednesday, January 12, 2000
Fatal blaze caused by coffee maker or circuit
BY TOM O'NEILL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ABERDEEN, Ohio — The fire that killed a man and his two young daughters last month was accidental, the State Fire Marshal's office said Tuesday.
The exact cause is undetermined, but fire marshal spokesman Thomas Ratcliff in Columbus said investigators narrowed the culprit to a coffee maker or a malfunctioning electrical circuit in the kitchen.
The Dec. 27 fire killed William Winkle, 55, and daughters Shayla Moore, 4, and Cailyn Moore, 1.
The lone survivor was the girls' mother, Millie Moore, 28, who fought to re-enter the home to save her daughters after she was pulled from a second-story window by a neighbor with a ladder.
The house on U.S. 52 was destroyed.
Mr. Winkle's body was found on a downstairs couch, and investigators think he was getting ready for work when the fire broke out.
He was a millwright in the Cincinnati area who enjoyed the peacefulness of the small Brown County river town in which he once owned a farm. So he moved the family to Aberdeen.
The home had a smoke detector, investigators said, but it was not clear whether it was working.
The family's landlord, Judy Clark, who lives next door, told The Cincinnati Enquirer that in the days prior to the fire, she heard an intermittent roaring sound from the kitchen of the Winkle-Moore home and thought it might be the heater.
But while investigators on the first day said the fire started in the kitchen, they were unable to determine how and where it started.
To make a financial contribution to the Millie Moore Assistance Fund, send it to Aberdeen Community First Bank, Box 505, Aberdeen, OH 45101. For information, call (937) 795-2248.
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