Family blames firecracker for blaze

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - A fire forced families from an apartment building early Monday morning and residents say a firecracker thrown through a window is what sparked it.

A husband and wife suffered minor burns but didn't want to go to the hospital.

The two were able to grab their two kids and make it out just before flames engulfed their apartment in the 3600 block of Otterbein Avenue. Their dog, Gidget, was killed by the blaze.

The fire spread to the attic of the 4-unit building and then to a neighboring apartment where a family of three had to make a mad dash to safety.

Firefighters are still investigating the cause, but those who live in the apartment building say they heard the firecracker get tossed into a bedroom window. They fear that whoever did it had sinister motives because the family is white in a predominantly black neighborhood.

"I think it's racially motivated, " neighbor Haylee Stroud says. Stroud's family was also forced out by the fire.

The Red Cross helped the two families whose apartments were damaged by the fire. Two other families lost power when the fire burned through the lines, but officials say those can be repaired.