An investigation continues into the cause of a house fire that killed five people early Tuesday morning in Reed Township.
Dean Henry, public information officer for Seneca County, said Wednesday afternoon the Lucas County Coroner's Office had begun performing autopsies on the two adults who were inside 13843 TR 124 when it caught fire. Autopsies on the three children recovered from the residence are scheduled to begin today.
Henry said he did not know when the autopsies would be complete.
Several agencies including the State Fire Marshal, the Seneca County Sheriff's Office, the Attica-Venice-Reed Fire Department and the coroner's office are investigating what caused the fire and deaths.
"We're all working together to try to figure out what happened," said Seneca County Sheriff Bill Eckelberry. "Because there's a loss of five individuals, we all have questions we need answered."
Eckelberry said the agencies are currently waiting on the results of the autopsies in order to continue the investigation.
"We're on a holding pattern until we get those," he said.
Attica-Venice-Reed Fire Chief Brett Meyers said his fire department continues to communicate with the State Fire Marshal, the lead investigator in the case.
"We're just working together and communicating together," he said.
Meyers, who has served on the AVR Fire Department for 30 years, said the department has never dealt with anything like Tuesday's fire in his memory.
"We've had a couple of fatalities over the years but nothing this devastating," he said.
A call placed to Lyn Polan, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Commerce, was not returned by Wednesday evening.
