Space heater fire kills 9-year-old boy, seriously injures 3 family members near Fayetteville
A boy is dead and three other people are hospitalized with serious injuries after a mobile home fire in Cumberland County near Fayetteville.
A family member said Thomas Miller died in the Tuesday morning fire. He was 9.
Authorities flew the boy's father to the UNC Burn Center in Chapel Hill, according to his uncle, Willliam Knight.
"It's just overwhelming," Knight said. "It's really, really, really tough."
Knight said said the boy's mother is receiving treatment at the UNC Burn Center in Chapel Hill and the boy's 16-year-old sister is at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville.
"The 16-year-old blames herself for the accident that occurred," Knight said. "She feels like ... she's the one that plugged the heater in. She feels like she's responsible for the fire."
Knight insisted that no one is to blame for the fire. He estimated the mobile home had at least three electric heaters inside.
At 12:04 a.m. Tuesday, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office responded to a structure fire at the 2500 block of Dasher Lane. Four people were in the home at the time of the fire. One child was pronounced dead at the scene. Another child and two adults were taken to a medical facility for treatment.
Knight and family members are blaming a faulty electric space heater for the fire, which officials said was the cause.
The cause of the fire has been ruled accidental with no signs of foul play.
Property owner Lee Strickland said he believes Miller and his family were trying to keep warm with a heater. He said they were hardworking.
"They never bothered anybody," Strickland said. "They just went to work. [They] just tried to raise their family the way they thought they should be raised.
"No issues with [this family] whatsoever. [They are] very good, hardworking citizens."
Thomas Miller was a student at Cumberland Mills Elementary School. Grief counselors will be on hand at the school as needed. The community is raising money to help the family through GoFundMe.
Strickland said the boy's father is a mechanic.
This investigation is ongoing.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Fire Investigator Senior Sergeant T. Whitman at 910-321-6786. If someone wishes to report crimes anonymously, please contact the Fayetteville/Cumberland County CrimeStoppers at 910-483-8477 or fay-nccrimestoppers.org.
