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Parents of 3 children killed in Michigan house fire had installed extra locks, affidavit says

Hannah Mackay, The Detroit News on

Published in News & Features

DETROIT — A search warrant affidavit for the West Bloomfield home where three siblings died in a fire in February revealed that the first 911 call came from the family's 16-year-old daughter, who told authorities, "There's no way for us to get out."

The affidavit sheds new light on the Feb. 2 fire that killed Hannah, Jeremiah and Jacob Oliora, ages 16, 14, and 12, and why the siblings, one of whom had nonverbal autism, weren't able to escape.

The investigation into the fire, meanwhile, is ongoing, according to West Bloomfield police. The West Bloomfield police and fire departments have denied Freedom of Information acts requests related to the fire and its investigation.

Police executed a search warrant at the Oliora home on Feb. 4. No findings have been submitted to the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office, according to Police Chief Dale Young.

According to the affidavit, Hannah told 911 dispatchers that the fire started in the living room. Authorities haven't revealed what caused the blaze.

After the fire, police interviewed the parents, Don and Liz Oliora, the next day and learned that Jeremiah had been diagnosed with nonverbal autism. He'd previously attempted to climb out of a second-story window of the home on Pembury Lane and left the home unsupervised through the front door. He was found in their neighborhood by a passerby, according to the documents.

To prevent similar incidents from happening again, the parents told police they installed window locks and an interior front door lock. The key to unlock the front door was kept in a lockbox inside, near the home's garage. Only the parents and their oldest daughter had access to the lockbox, according to court documents.

Hannah's initial 911 call came in around 8:05 p.m. on Feb. 2. Her father had left the home around 2:40 p.m. to work for DoorDash, and her mother left at the same time for work as a nurse, according to the documents.

At 7:10 p.m., Hannah called her father to ask about the family's dinner plans. She told her father that she would start cooking hamburgers for her and her brothers, and her dad said he would come home after completing a few more DoorDash stops.

 

Liz was working when she was told about the fire by a neighbor and the police. She told police that her three children were inside and that she was on her way home, and called her husband to alert him at 8:27 p.m.

When police arrived on the scene of the fire and learned about the children trapped inside the home, they attempted to extinguish the flames in the back of the house but couldn't.

Firefighters then arrived and were able to enter the home and extract the kids. One was found right behind the front door, while another was in an upstairs bathroom, according to the documents.

Hannah and Jeremiah were taken to Detroit Receiving Hospital, while Jacob was taken to Henry Ford Hospital in West Bloomfield, but all three succumbed to their injuries.

An autopsy by the Oakland County Medical Examiner's Office revealed that Jacob's preliminary cause of death was accidental and due to smoke and soot inhalation, according to the court documents. Autopsies for his brother and sister had not been conducted when the search warrant affidavit was filed.

When firefighters entered the home, they could hear the ignitor of the gas stove clicking, according to the documents.

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