Neighbour of US family killed in blaze charged

OhIO: A neighbour of a family that died in a house fire has been charged with intentionally setting it ablaze, killing two adults and five children.

Stanley Ford, 58, was charged with aggravated murder and arson, Akron police said on Tuesday.

Investigators would not discuss a possible motive as they were still investigating the May 15 fire. They also would not say what had led them to arrest Ford.

Police said they did not know of any connection between Ford and the family other than the fact that they were neighbours.

Another neighbour, Tiffney Gary, said she saw Ford at a vigil for the family on Saturday.

She described him as quiet and said she could not believe Ford might have set the fire.

“I don’t understand. Nobody said they had a beef or anything, or that they had ever argued with him,” Gary, 38, said.

Killed in the fire were Dennis Huggins, 35, his partner Angela Boggs, 38, and five children: 14-yearold Jered Boggs, six-year-old Daisia Huggins, five-year-old Kylle Huggins, three-year-old Alivia Huggins and 11-month-old Cameron Huggins.

A medical examiner said all seven died of smoke inhalation.

Ford was due to be arraigned yesterday. Court records did not show any previous criminal convictions in Akron.

Paul Clegg, 59, a next-door neighbour of the family, said he had spoken to Ford a few times.

“Just by talking to him, he seemed like a straight-up gentlemen. Some people can fool you, I guess,” Clegg said.

Firefighters found the two-storey home engulfed in flames when they arrived in the early morning hours last week. The house sat at the top of a winding street in a neighbourhood of mostly two-storey clapboard houses in Akron.

The fire happened a block from a home where a man and a woman died in an April 2016 fire that was investigated as a potential arson.

No one was charged in that fire, and authorities said they were taking another look at it because of this recent blaze. — AP