A child was confirmed dead after a house fire in Ooltewah razed a family's home early Wednesday morning.
Dispatchers received the first report of a house fire in the 4100 block of Shady Oak Drive around 5:45 a.m., and by the time firefighters arrived, the home was engulfed in flames, said Amy Maxwell, spokeswoman for Hamilton County Emergency Services.
"[A neighbor] awoke to hearing a woman screaming. He obviously got dressed and came out to find his neighbor's home was fully involved with fire," she said at the scene while firefighters finished extinguishing the rest of the blaze.
She said the surviving family, two parents and another child, told the neighbor that 9-year-old Jamie Dickerson was missing and the neighbor used a ladder to try to climb through a window on the second floor. Another neighbor tried to get in through the back door.
House fire at 4012 Shady Oak Drive."Unfortunately, it was way too hot and too dangerous for them to try to go inside," Maxwell said. "When Tri-Community [firefighters] first got here on the scene, they attempted to conduct an interior attack, but unfortunately, with the [unsafe condition] of the structure they had to do a defensive attack on the home."
Investigators found the victim's body shortly after the fire was extinguished. The American Red Cross has been notified of the loss and is assisting the family.
The cause of the fire has not been determined, but the home is considered a total loss.
The death comes less than a week after a Hixson man died in a duplex fire. And two months ago, a house fire in Birchwood, Tenn., claimed the lives of a teenage couple on Dolly Pond Road.
Frigid temperatures bring with them a higher risk of house fires as residents turn to space heaters or open flames to warm their homes.
Today is the two-year anniversary of a house fire in Jackson, Ala., that is believed to have begun with a gas heater before consuming the home and killing Carolyn Quarels, 63; Tony Alexander, 42; Kimberly Alexander, 34; Brianne Alexander, 8; and Emily Alexander, 6.
Investigators said they believed something fell on the heater and caught fire while the family slept.
Contact staff writer Emmett Gienapp at egienapp@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6731. Follow him on Twitter @emmettgienapp.