'A terrible week': Another fatal fire confirmed in Iowa
Two more fatal fires have added to the toll that included the deaths of four children in a Mason City blaze early Wednesday.
Jones County Sheriff Greg Graver confirmed Friday that a fatal fire originating in the kitchen of a home in Onslow had claimed the life of a fifth child who had been trapped in an upstairs bedroom. Another fatal fire Thursday in Cedar Rapids killed two adults. And the Quad City Times reported that a fire in a Walcott mobile home killed a 2-year-old Monday.
It's "been a terrible week in eastern Iowa for fatal fires," Graver said in an email to the Register.
In a news release, Graver's office said the Onslow fire was reported at 4:15 a.m. Because the town, population 200, lacks a fire department, firefighters from Wyoming, about four miles to the south, were called, arriving around 4:30 a.m.
The release said an adult and four children managed to escape the burning house. Several more fire departments and ambulance services arrived, but the fire and heat pushed back rescuers as they made multiple unsuccessful attempts to save the trapped child, a student in the Midland School District, the release said.
It said the child's body was taken to the state Medical Examiner's Office in Ankeny.
Three of the other children and the adult were treated at a hospital and released. A fourth was taken to the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics and was in unknown condition, the release said.
The names of the adult and children were not immediately released.
Couple die in Cedar Rapids fire
A day earlier, a fire in the basement of a single-story home in Cedar Rapids left two people dead.
Police arrived at the home at 12:08 p.m. Thursday in response to a 911 call about smoke coming from the windows of the home, according to a news release from the Cedar Rapids Fire Department. Firefighters entered the home after witnesses told them it was occupied.
They found Charles and Sheri Osterkamp, 72 and 70, respectively, in the basement, the release said. The couple were declared dead at the scene.
An investigation of the fire continued Friday.
In Mason City, investigators said the fire there that killed four children and left another child and their father with burns had started in an electrical power strip.
In a statement published Friday in the Mason City Globe Gazette, John Michael and Angela Mcluer, the children's parents, thanked the community and school district, where the children had been students, for their support and said a memorial service will be held after John Michael Mcluer is released from the hospital.
No further details were available on the Walcott fire, which the Times quoted Walcott Police Chief Jeffrey Blake as saying had been reported at 2:38 a.m. Monday.
Firefighters also battled blazes in a condominium complex in West Des Moines on Tuesday and a multifamily home in Des Moines' Sherman Hill neighborhood on Wednesday.
The winter holiday period typically is a time of increased residential fire risk, according to the National Fire Data Center of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. In a report, it cited numerous reasons, including use of space heaters and fireplaces as the weather cools, faulty holiday lighting and cooking accidents.
Francesca Block is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at FBlock@registermedia.com or on Twitter at @francescablock3.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Deadly fire in Jones County is latest in Iowa this week
