Four people died in a house fire in Junior on Wednesday night, and investigators believe discarded fireworks started the blaze, the West Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Office said.
Barbour County 911 received a call reporting a fire at a home at 355 West River Avenue at 10:41 p.m. July 1. Callers reported that people were trapped inside.
Firefighters arrived to find the front of the home on fire. They searched the house and found four adults inside — two women and two men. All four were unresponsive when they were carried out, and attempts to revive them were unsuccessful, according to a press release.
The victims were a 61-year-old man, a 27-year-old man, a 26-year-old woman and a 23-year-old woman. Their names were not released.
State Fire Marshal investigators responded to the scene and began an investigation with help from the West Virginia State Police. They determined the fire started on the home’s front porch, where they found the remains of used consumer-grade fireworks. The occupants had set off the pyrotechnics before the fire, investigators said.
“Evidence indicates that the materials were most probably disposed of improperly into a waste bag with other refuse, which ignited those items, causing the fire,” according to the fire marshal’s office.
The home had no working smoke alarms, and the victims could not escape because the fire blocked their way out, the release notes.
