{"id":163880,"date":"2026-04-12T14:33:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T14:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/163880\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T14:33:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T14:33:24","slug":"deadly-erie-fire-becomes-criminal-case-when-3-children-left-home-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/163880\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadly Erie fire becomes criminal case when 3 children left home alone"},"content":{"rendered":"

The police cars are gone from the scene of the fatal fire at 535\u00bd E. 26th St. in Erie<\/a>, and plastic sheeting covers the exterior fire damage to the house’s second-floor apartment.<\/p>\n

But the effects of the fire are far from over.<\/p>\n

Stuffed animals surround a utility pole on the street near the house \u2015 a memorial to the three young children who died in the fire, which broke out shortly before 4:30 p.m. on March 29.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A fire burned through the back of the upstairs apartment at 535\u00bd E. 26th St. in Erie on March 29, leaving three children dead.<\/p>\n

The Erie police and the Erie County District Attorney’s Office continue to investigate the blaze, which erupted when no adults were present in the second-floor apartment.<\/p>\n

Fatal fires: Twelve have died in 10 fires in Erie County over 14-month span<\/a><\/p>\n

As investigators continue their work and the community continues to mourn, here is a summary of what happened.<\/p>\n

Who died in the fire?<\/p>\n

Three siblings perished in the blaze. They are Tobias Huff, 5, and Da’liyla Huff, 3,<\/a> and 5-month-old Amirah Al-Mansouri<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Huff children were pronounced dead at UPMC Hamot the day of the fire. Amirah was flown to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and died on April 3.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A makeshift memorial of stuffed animals stands near the site of the March 29 house fire at 535\u00bd E. 26th St., in which three young children died.<\/p>\n

The Erie County Coroner’s Office handled the deaths of the Huff children. Coroner Lyell Cook said on April 10 that his office is waiting on the results of toxicology tests to rule on the cause of death. Smoke inhalation is believed to be a factor.<\/p>\n

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office is handling the death of Amirah.<\/p>\n

Where did the fire occur?<\/p>\n

The fire was in the kitchen of the second-floor apartment at 535\u00bd E. 26th St., a house with another apartment downstairs, according to Erie fire officials. The fire burned through the kitchen and into the attic.<\/p>\n

The house is between Ash and Wallace streets and several houses east of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. The house sits behind a house with an address of 535 E. 26th St.<\/p>\n

Child deaths: Erie police look to add investigator as child victim cases increase<\/a><\/p>\n

Firefighters found the three children in a bedroom near the kitchen, fire officials said.<\/p>\n

When did the fire occur?<\/p>\n

A neighbor whose backyard faces the back of 535\u00bd E. 26th St., saw the fire after her grandchildren alerted her to it.<\/p>\n

\"Erie<\/p>\n

Erie police are considering possible charges of child endangerment in the March 29 fire at 535\u00bd E. 26th St., in which three children left alone died.<\/p>\n

The neighbor, Rosheemah Lester<\/a>, called 911 at 4:24 p.m. Fire crews arrived three minutes and 17 seconds later, according to the Erie Bureau of Fire.<\/p>\n

What happened at the fire scene?<\/p>\n

Another person got to the fire scene before firefighters. He is Brandon Lewis, who was visiting a friend in the 500 block of East 27th Street when he saw flames in the back of the house at 535\u00bd E. 26th St.<\/p>\n

Lewis ran through backyards to get to the front entrance of 535\u00bd E. 26th St. He said he kicked down the entrance door and saw a mattress between the door and the stairs leading up to the front door of the apartment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lewis said he pulled the mattress aside and headed up the stairs, but that heavy smoke turned him away.<\/p>\n

Erie Chief Fire Inspector Don Sauer said the mattress was inside the front entrance, and he said that, at the top of the stairs to that entrance, a couch was blocking the door to the apartment from the inside. Sauer said firefighters pushed away the couch to get inside.<\/p>\n

The second-floor apartment at 535\u00bd E. 26th St. also has a rear entrance, which Sauer said was the primary entrance for the residents. Sauer said that entrance was free of debris on the stairs or elsewhere.<\/p>\n

What caused the fire in the apartment’s kitchen?<\/p>\n

Erie fire investigators initially ruled the fire accidental, but later changed the ruling to undetermined.<\/p>\n

No officials have said they believe the fire was intentionally set. But fire officials have been unable to determine what caused the fire.<\/p>\n

The apartment had working smoke alarms, officials said.<\/p>\n

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assisted in the investigation of the cause of the fire.<\/p>\n

Were any adults home with the children at the time?<\/p>\n

The three children lived with their mother, but no adults were home when the fire broke out, according to a search warrant Erie police executed on the apartment the day of the fire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“No adults were found or believed to be at home when the fire broke out or when the fire department arrived,” according to the warrant.<\/p>\n

The neighbor who called in the fire, Rosheemah Lester, said she saw the mother arrive at the fire scene during the fire.<\/p>\n

What charges are the police investigating?<\/p>\n

The search warrant states that police are exploring a possible charge of endangering the welfare of children.<\/p>\n

Investigators have conducted interviews and looked at surveillance video as part of the probe, Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said.<\/p>\n

District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz has declined comment, citing the ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n

No charges had been filed as of April 10.<\/p>\n

Contact Ed Palattella at\u00a0epalattella@usatodayco.com<\/a>\u00a0or 814-870-1813.<\/p>\n

Contact Tim Hahn at\u00a0thahn@usatodayco.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: A fire and 3 young children left alone. What led to deadly Erie blaze<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The police cars are gone from the scene of the fatal fire at 535\u00bd E. 26th St. in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[734,136,73925,142,138,137,5585,17162,73924,73923,70421],"class_list":{"0":"post-163880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-erie","8":"tag-children","9":"tag-erie","10":"tag-erie-chief-fire-inspector-don-sauer","11":"tag-erie-county","12":"tag-erie-headlines","13":"tag-erie-news","14":"tag-erie-police","15":"tag-fire-damage","16":"tag-fire-investigators","17":"tag-fire-officials","18":"tag-tobias-huff"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}