Family, Friends, Neighbors In Mourning After Gary Fire Leaves 6-Year-Old Girl, Uncle Dead
GARY, Ind. (CBS) -- Investigators late Tuesday were still working to learn what started a fatal fire in Gary in the morning.
Ciara Brown, 6, and her uncle, Dennis Liggins, 30, were killed in the blaze, which broke out around 4:30 a.m. in the 500 block of Maryland Street. A woman who was airlifted to the University of Chicago Medical Center is in critical condition.
As CBS 2's Tara Molina reported, teddy bears, candles and I-love-you's were part of a growing memorial toward the back of the home where Ciara and her uncle were found.
"Ciara was my baby," said close family friend Vanessa Jones.
"Sweet, very good little girl," said neighbor Theresa Trimble.
A TikTok video showed little Ciara dancing with a family friend - something she was known for around her Gary neighborhood.
"I'm upset," said Ciara's uncle, Clary Carlisle. "I'm upset.
The couple that lived upstairs was able to get out safely.
But Ciara and her uncle Dennis - who family said was autistic - both died in the fire that tore through their home early Tuesday morning.
Another woman, Tisha, who we are told is Ciara's grandmother and Dennis' mother, was the one who was able to escape the blaze. She was airlifted to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition.
Witnesses said she stood outside the house screaming that her granddaughter and son were still inside.
"It's just heartbreaking," Trimble said.
Fire officials say it started in the front of the home - which was left totally charred - in the lower unit.
It was unclear whether there were any working smoke detectors. Family told us there were not.
"There was not one single smoke detector," Carlisle said. "That's a problem."
But when we asked the landlord, Sam Coates, about that, he said it was not true.
"There was smoke detectors in living rooms; dining rooms," he said.
Coates lives across the street and said he ran over with a fire extinguisher to help, but couldn't
"I did the best I could," he said. "I tried to put the fire out, which I couldn't do."
On Tuesday night, the Indiana State Fire Marshal's office and Gary fire and police departments were still investigating the cause of the fire here.
