Infant, woman killed, 10 injured in Cincinnati house fire chief called “hellish”

An infant and woman were killed and ten other people hurt in a house fire in Cincinnati Sunday afternoon. The city’s fire chief described the scene as “hellish,” CBS Cincinnati affiliate WKRC reported.

The fire department said in a statement that it got several 911 calls at about 1 o’clock and responding firefighters found intense flames on the first and second floors of the three-story, two-family home.

Several injured people said they’d jumped from upper floors. They said two people were unaccounted for.

Firefighters “mounted a heroic attempt to search out and assist the missing parties, but were ultimately forced out of the building as the fire grew,” so firefighters fought the blaze from the outside of the house and got it under control some two hours later.

They then resumed the search for the two missing people and, several hours later, found the bodies of the woman and male infant.

Ten other people, from three months to 48 years old, were taken to hospitals, the statement continued.

“While an initial assessment shows the cause was most likely accidental, the cause of the fire remains under investigation,” the statement pointed out.