SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP, OH (Toledo News Now) - A Toledo woman has been arrested in Texas, charged with two counts of murder in a fatal 2012 fire in Springfield Township.
Fire crews rushed to the Hidden Cedars condominium complex on Garden Road just after 11 p.m. on Sunday, March 25, 2012. By the time firefighters got the blaze under control, two people were dead, several others injured. More than 70 people lost their homes in the fire.
Killed in the fire were 61-year-old Robert McGhee and 58-year-old Olandia Keith Dixon. U.S. Marshals arrested Robert McGhee's daughter, Kenya McGhee, in Fort Bend County, Texas Friday morning.
Investigators ruled the fire arson in April of 2012, and a coroner ruled Robert McGhee's death a suicide in June of 2012. It is unclear if Friday's charges against his daughter will change that ruling.
The fire completely destroyed building G of the complex. There were reports of injuries after several residents had to jump from the third floor to escape the fire.
"We heard people trapped in their apartment; just screaming at the top of their lungs, people throwing their babies at people that are down below. I was just in shock. I couldn't do nothing but cry," said Dawn Halbert, who lived in Building G.
"Kids were pulling on me, asking me where their parents were. We saw people jumping from balconies, windows, and it just got out of control very fast," Tiffiny Morgan said the night of the fire.
The blaze that killed McGhee and Dixon was the fifth fire at the complex in 12 years. In October of 2009, fire destroyed another building and caused more than $2 million worth of damage.
In 2006, three people were hurt in a fire blamed on faulty electrical appliances inside a unit.
Six teens were charged with arson in a 2003 fire.
Back in early July of 2000, a fire destroyed more than 20 units in Building K of the complex.
