3 kids die in northeastern Ohio fire
JEROMESVILLE — Faithlyn Bogavich was going to show cattle at this fall’s Wayne County Fair, and Delaney Bogavich was about to start preschool.
Faithlyn, 12; Delaney, 4; and their brother, 1-year-old John Jeffrey “JJ” Bogavich, died in a house fire that was reported at 12:46 a.m. Monday by a neighbor in a rural part of eastern Ashland County.
Three others in the home were transported to University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center for treatment for injuries that were not life-threatening, including John Bogavich and Mindy Speicher, parents to Delaney and JJ. Faithlyn was John’s daughter from a previous relationship. Mindy and John were still at University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center on Monday afternoon, according to Jeff Speicher, Mindy’s father.
Brother Brayden Bogavich, 13, was the third person transported to the hospital, and he said he escaped from the house because he was sleeping on the first floor near a door. Everyone else was asleep on the second floor of the home.
He said he heard screaming amid the smoke and flames before escaping through the door near his bedroom. His mother, Sonja Mcie-cobb, said he wanted to go back in for his sister Faithlyn once he was outside.
Brayden still seemed in shock Monday about the deaths of Faithlyn and his half-siblings, Mcie-cobb said. “He’s still trying to process it.”
Jeromesville Fire Department Chief Todd Elliott said the fire’s impact was “very sobering.”
Elliott said it had been decades since the Jeromesville Fire Department had fought a fatal fire. It took about 1½ hours to get the fire under control, Elliott said. The bodies of the three children were recovered from the remnants of the home after the fire was extinguished.
Ashland County coroner’s office investigator Jennifer Taylor said the three children died of smoke inhalation.
Assistant Fire Chief John Cutlip said when firefighters arrived, the two-story house was fully engulfed.
“We used six tankers from neighboring departments that responded to the scene,” Cutlip said. He said the home’s distance from the roadway meant getting water to the home was more difficult.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation by the various agencies involved.
Some of the Mcie-cobb family gathered Monday to mourn Faithlyn, who they say was an always smiling 12-year-old who loved animals, cheerleading and math class.
“She’s fun-loving,” Sonja Mcie-cobb said. “Anybody who met her would probably fall in love with her. That’s the kind of spirit she had.”
A crisis team was on hand Monday in the Hillsdale school district that Faithlyn and Brayden attended. The school was accepting donations of clothes and other personal items for the family over the next several days.
“This is when we are our best. I would love to say we’re our best all the time but the reality is our community comes together like no other in times of crisis,” said middle school principal Tim Keib. “We see this time and time again, big problems, small problems, we come together. That’s what we do as Falcons.”