BLUE CREEK, Ohio -- A husband and wife are dead after a house fire in Blue Creek early Sunday morning, according to the Adams County Sheriff's Department.
The fire started at around 2 a.m. Sunday at the home on OH-125. By 2:15, fire deputies had exhausted their fire extinguisher. They had to pull water from a nearby pond.
Carl Hochchild Jr., 66, and Cynthia Hochchild, 61, died in the fire, the sheriff's department said. Their son, Sam Larson, and his wife, Erica Larson, escaped the fire.
Neighbors said Hochchild Jr. was a Navy veteran who served in Vietnam.
Richard White, a neighbor, reported seeing the house engulfed in flames.
"It was terrible to see ... the flames were shooting probably 50 feet in the air, and cracking and popping," White said. "The house was just so dry. It was like a tinder box."
Hours later, smoke was still billowing out of the gutted house.
