Officials: Building involved in deadly Dayton fire was bought recently; not a ‘nuisance’ property

DAYTON — Dayton city and fire officials provided an update after five bodies were found following a large fire on North Broadway Street Wednesday.

City officials including Mayor Jeffrey Mims and City Manager Shelley Dickstein started the press conference off with a moment of silence for the five lives lost.

“This is indeed a tragic, tragic event. Tragic for the victims and their families. Tragic for our first responders who had to respond to such a dangerous event and tragic for the community overall,” Dickstein said.

Dickstein clarified that the property involved in the fire was unowned and had actually been bought for $70,000 in December.

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The building had no code violations and was not listed as a “nuisance” property by the city, she said.

Dayton Fire Chief and Director Jeff Lykins went over the details of his crews’ response to the fire.

After four minutes all crews were asked to exit the structure by the incident commander due to intense fire conditions throughout the structure and concern the home would collapse, according to a media release.

Lykins noted again that crews were unable to search the building during the fire for victims due to the intense heat of the fire and the structure being unstable.

He thanked Ohio Task Force 1 for providing their cadaver dogs to help search for victims.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: ‘There’s no way to make this okay;’ 5 bodies found in debris of multi-building fire in Dayton

Peer support was brought in for crews on scene and will be available for the coming weeks, he added. Many of the crews originally called to the fire included new recruits.

Crews were on the scene for around 17 hours, making for a very emotionally and physically exhausting day Lykins said.

“We’ve transitioned from the incident to really making sure we take care of our people, and that isn’t always as easy as it may appear,” he told News Center 7 before the press conference Thursday.

Lykins said he is aware not everyone heals from tragic events in the same way.

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“We really do try to be very delicate in how we provide peer support for our member’s mental health needs, but yet let them know that we are willing and able to assist them in any way,” he said.

“We did find out ... during the firefighting extinction process that there were squatters known to stay in the building, up to 12,” Lykins previously told News Center 7.

Dickstein spoke on resources provided by the city for those who are homeless.

She said the city spends around $11 million a year to support and create “permanent supportive housing” within the city. She said the city is having conversations currently about how they can use further funding to “advance their strategy” to help end homelessness.

Mayor Jeffrey Mims offered his condolences to the loved ones of those who died.

“We are not at a point in time where we’re trying to assess blame. It’s just a painful situation right now and we’re just gonna continue to generate as much information as we can to see ways of preventing this from happening,” Mims said.

Lt. Col. Eric Henderson, assistant chief of police at Dayton Police Department said that his department only had four calls for service at the Broadway address previously.

Mostly for alarms that were later canceled and a burglary in progress where officers were unable to find anyone inside the house.

Henderson added that homicide detectives are aiding in the investigation of the fire, along with arson investigators.

Anyone with information about the fire is asked to contact the DFD Fire Investigation Unit at 937-333-TIPS.

News Center 7 will continue to follow this developing story.

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