Crews responded around 4:45 a.m. to a report of a fire in the 1000 block of Broadmoor Drive in the Patterson Park neighborhood.
Mike Fasnacht, district chief of the Dayton Fire Department, said crews arrived to find heavy fire showing from the first floor of the one-and-a-half-story house and a report of someone trapped on the first floor where the fire was believed to have started.
Firefighters immediately went into rescue mode to search for occupants and control the fire, he said.
“The fire was so intense on the first floor it was not survivable,” Fasnacht said.
The two other occupants, O’Neal’s son and his daughter, were already out when crews arrived. They were both taken to Miami Valley Hospital.
The man made it out and then went back inside to help get out his daughter, who was on the second floor, he said.
“If that’s truly what happened he is a hero, and he is the one who sustained the critical, not life-threatening yet, but he is in critical condition at the hospital,” Fasnacht said.
The daughter was under observation at the hospital, he said.
Fire spread to the second floor and basement, and it caused significant damage to the house.
No smoke detectors were found in the house, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
About the Author
