BLACKLICK, Ohio — Authorities identified a grandmother and young boy who died in a Blacklick house fire on Tuesday.
Marielda Nangah and D'Andre Berry-Samba were found dead in their home located in the 8600 block of Greylag Street hours after the fire.
According to the Jefferson Township Fire Department, crews were called to the home around 2 a.m. Two young girls, ages 10 and 12, were able to escape.
Officials said the girls were alerted to the fire after hearing the smoke detector and seeing smoke inside the home. The girls told fire officials that their grandmother helped them get out of the house.
Nangah and Berry-Samba were unaccounted for as firefighters battled the fire for hours. Jefferson Township Fire Chief Bradford Shull said firefighters could not enter the home earlier in the battle because of extent of the fire.
As crews searched through the damage later in the day, they found Nangah and Berry-Samba's bodies. Shull said on Tuesday that the grandson is 4 or 5 years old.
Shull said Nangah died while trying to save her grandchildren and should be considered a hero.
“Grandma was trying to close doors and isolate things for them to escape... though she succumbed, obviously her efforts were heroic,” Shull said.
According to a GoFundMe that was set up on behalf of the family, Berry-Samba was a pre-school student at St. Pius X, a Catholic school in Reynoldsburg. The two girls who made it out of the fire are 5th and 7th grade students at SPX.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.