DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Within minutes, the revelry of New Year’s Eve in Dubai turned to horror as those gathered for fireworks downtown watched flames race up the side of one of the glistening city’s most prominent luxury hotels.

But the fire at the 63-story The Address Downtown Dubai wasn’t the first, second or even third blaze to spread swiftly along the exterior of skyscrapers that have risen from the desert at a torrid pace in and around Dubai over the past two decades.

It was at least the eighth such fire in the Emirates alone, and similar blazes have struck major cities across the world, killing dozens of people, according to an Associated Press survey.

The reason, building and safety experts say, is the material used for the buildings’ sidings, called aluminum composite panel cladding. While types of cladding can be made with fire-resistant material, experts say those that have caught fire in Dubai and elsewhere weren’t designed to meet stricter safety standards and often were put onto buildings without any breaks to slow or halt a possible blaze.

While new regulations are now in place for construction in Dubai and other cities, experts acknowledge they have no idea how many skyscrapers have the potentially combustible paneling and are at risk of similar fast-moving fires.

“It’s like a wildfire going up the sides of the building,” said Thom Bohlen, chief technical officer at the Middle East Center for Sustainable Development in Dubai. “It’s very difficult to control and it’s very fast. It happens extremely fast.”

Cladding came into vogue over a decade ago, as Dubai’s building boom was well underway. Developers use it because it offers a modern finish to buildings, allows dust to wash off during rains, and is relatively simple and cheap to install.

Dubai has since burgeoned into a cosmopolitan business hub of more than 2 million people. As in other Emirati cities, foreign residents far outnumber the local population. Expatriate professionals in particular are drawn to the ear-popping apartments the city’s hundreds of high-rises offer, and skyscraper hotels accommodate millions of guests each year. The city-state aims to attract 20 million visitors annually by the time it hosts the World Expo in 2020.

That means the risk of high-rise fires touches people from all over the world.

Typically, the cladding is a half-millimeter (0.02-inch) thick piece of aluminum attached to a foam core that is sandwiched to another similar skin. The panels are then affixed to the side of a building, one piece after another.

The biggest problem lies with panel cores that are all or mostly polyethylene, a common type of plastic, said Andy Dean, the Mideast head of facades at the engineering consultancy WSP Global.

“The ones with 100-percent polyethylene core can burn quiet readily,” Dean said. “Some of the older, even fire-rated materials, still have quite a lot of polymer in them.”

The panels themselves don’t spark the fires, and the risks can be lessened if they are installed with breaks between them to curb a fire’s spread. The panels’ flammability can be significantly reduced by replacing some of the plastic inside the panels with material that doesn’t burn so easily.

However, when installed uninterrupted row after row, more flammable types of cladding provide a straight line of kindling up the side of a tower.

That was the case in 2012 when a spate of fires struck Dubai and the neighboring emirate of Sharjah. Blaze after blaze, though some ignited differently, behaved the same way: fire rushed up and down the sides of the buildings, fueled by the external panels.

The day after an April 2012 fire at a 40-story building in Sharjah, Dubai issued new building regulations barring the use of cladding constructed with flammable material. Officials elsewhere in the United Arab Emirates followed suit, though by that time, the building boom had subsided in the wake of a global recession.

But the rules did not call for retrofitting buildings with flammable cladding already installed — nor is there any clear idea of how many of these buildings stand in Dubai or the UAE’s other six emirates.

Local experts have suggested as many as 70 percent of the towers in the Dubai may contain the material, though they acknowledge the figure is only an estimate as there are apparently no official records.

“There’s an exposure because there’s a lot of them and unfortunately they don’t come with an ‘X’ on the building to know which ones they are,” said Sami Sayegh, global property executive in the Middle East and North Africa for insurance giant American International Group, Inc.

Emaar Properties, which developed The Address Downtown and nearby properties including the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, said authorities are still investigating the New Year’s Eve fire. It has hired an outside contractor to assess and restore the damaged tower, and it plans to reopen the hotel, based on orders from Dubai’s ruler himself. It has not released specific details about the type of cladding used.

However, The National, a state-owned newspaper in Abu Dhabi, has reported that the cladding used on The Address Downtown was the fire-prone type seen in other blazes.

Lt. Col. Jamal Ahmed Ibrahim, director of preventive safety for Dubai Civil Defense, said authorities take the issue of cladding fires seriously and are committed to “finding solutions and stopping these accidents from happening.”

A nationwide survey of existing buildings has been ordered in the wake of The Address fire, and additional guidelines will be put in place in March to ensure new buildings are constructed to a higher standard, he said.

However, Ibrahim insisted that the type of cladding that was involved in previous tower fires appears to have been used on only a small number of all buildings in the emirate — a figure he suggested could be as little as 5 percent. But he acknowledged that officials don’t know how many buildings are at risk.

“Without (doing) the survey or something, we can’t say the number exactly,” he said.

The problem is not Dubai’s alone — cladding fires have struck elsewhere in the world.

In 2010, a similar fire at a Shanghai high-rise killed at least 58 people. An apartment fire in May in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, killed 16. Another dramatic blaze hit Beijing’s TV Cultural Center in February 2009, killing a firefighter.

All bore similarities to the Dubai fires, with flames racing up the sides of the building, and experts attributed each fire’s speed to the cladding.

Peter Rau, the chief officer of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade in Melbourne, Australia, knows firsthand how dangerous such fires can be. In November 2014, a fire erupted at a 23-story apartment building in Melbourne and raced up more than 20 stories in just six minutes as flaming debris rained down below. While no one was injured, the fast-moving blaze did millions of dollars’ worth of damage to the building.

In the aftermath of the blaze, fire officials discovered some 50 other buildings in the city — and 1,700 in the surrounding state of Victoria — had similar, flammable siding, Rau said.

“You know you’ve only got to step back a little bit further and say: ‘What does it mean for Australia and what does it mean (when) you’re talking to me from Dubai?'” Rau said. “This is a significant issue worldwide, I would suggest… There is no question this is a game changer.”

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A three-vehicle crash Sunday afternoon in Brunswick Hills Township sent two people to the hospital.

ELIZABETH DOBBINS/GAZETTE An officer looks at the damaged 2013 Dodge Ram involved in a Sunday crash on Marks Road.

The names of the injured were not available Monday.

A 2000 Chevrolet pickup pulling out of a driveway on Marks Road at about 12:40 p.m. failed to yield to a 2007 Chevrolet Impala traveling north, Ohio Highway Patrol Sgt. Richard Sprague said Monday.

The Impala collided with the pickup, causing the Impala to cross over the center line where it struck a southbound 2013 Dodge Ram head-on, Sprague said.

Ambulances from Brunswick Hills Township transported a driver and passenger to Southwest General Health Center in Brunswick, he said.

Sprague said he was unsure if seat belts were used in the vehicles.

The crash is still under investigation, he said.

Brunswick Hills police and fire department also responded to the accident.

A status conference has been scheduled in the criminal case of a Medina man accused of leaving his 20-month-old daughter’s body in a crib for more than a month.

Eric Warfel

Attorneys in the case of Eric Warfel, along with the county prosecutor and Medina County Common Pleas Judge Christopher J. Collier will meet at 1 p.m. Feb. 24 to determine the status of the case and whether they can schedule a trial, which was postponed earlier this month.

Warfel, 34, was arrested in July after an Armstrong Cable technician, who was installing upgrades in all of the apartments where Warfel had been residing, found the body of Ember Warfel and called police.

Warfel was arrested on July 29. He was charged with gross abuse of a corpse, evidence tampering, three counts of child endangering and two counts of possession of cocaine.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges by reason of insanity, but was found competent to stand trial.

In a motion filed earlier, Prosecutor Dean Holman asked that Warfel’s trial, which had been scheduled to start today, be postponed since the autopsy of the toddler has not yet been completed, “due to the advanced state of decomposition of her body when she was found.”

HARTFORD, Conn. — Officers in Connecticut last year fired stun guns at blacks and Hispanics at a higher rate than at white suspects, and warned but didn’t fire at white suspects at a higher rate than they did blacks or Hispanics, according to preliminary data from the nation’s first statewide accounting of the weapons’ use by police.

Among the figures revealed in the raw data, obtained and reviewed by The Associated Press ahead of an official report expected in coming weeks:

• Police reported 641 incidents involving stun guns last year, including 437 actual firings and 204 threats of use.
• Thirty percent of the people involved in the overall incidents were black and 21 percent were Hispanic.
• Within the overall number of stun gun incidents, officers fired at them 60 percent of the time in cases involving whites, 80 percent of the time in cases involving blacks and 69 percent of the time in cases involving Hispanics.
• Officers warned about firing but did not do so at white suspects 40 percent of the time, black suspects 20 percent of the time and Hispanic suspects 31 percent of the time.
• When state and municipal officers fired their stun guns in 2015, 43 percent of the suspects were white, 35 percent were black and 21 percent were Hispanic. But when officers only threatened to use stun guns and did not fire them, 61 percent of the subjects were white, 19 percent were black and 20 percent were Hispanic.

A 2014 law made Connecticut the first state to require all police departments to report every instance in which an officer discharges or threatens to use a stun gun. Researchers at Central Connecticut State University are reviewing the data and will submit a report with analysis to state officials, possibly by the end of February.

The figures don’t include data from several smaller towns that didn’t submit reports. Researchers have contacted them and are awaiting responses.

State officials cautioned against making quick conclusions about the figures, saying they have just begun to analyze them after the Jan. 15 deadline for police departments to submit the reports. Civil liberties advocates also said that the data appear to show racial disparities on the surface, but that more analysis is needed.

“It seems like in the cases where it was threatened but not used, there were far more white people involved,” said Michael Lawlor, state undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning. “Why that is and whether there is some other explanation, we’re going to go through the data and try to figure it out.”

The new data come as police nationwide face increasing scrutiny over their use of force, in the wake of high-profile fatal shootings by officers, especially of black suspects. Although stun guns have been billed as non-lethal alternatives to guns, they have resulted in deaths, and reliable information on how police use them has been lacking.

Amnesty International has reported that at least 540 people in the United States died after being shocked with stun guns from 2001 to 2012.

The Connecticut data showed one death last year, in the community of Branford, researchers said. Media reports and the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut show two deaths in the state — the one in Branford and an additional one in Hartford. The reason for the discrepancy wasn’t immediately clear.

Among injuries, the vast majority were from removal of the prongs that deliver the shock, researchers said.

In Connecticut, 17 people have died since 2005 after police hit them with stun guns, 12 of them minorities, according to the ACLU.

Of the new data on stun gun use, David McGuire, legislative and policy director for the Connecticut ACLU, called the statistics “alarming.”

“I think this data will be helpful for policy makers and police chiefs in Connecticut to get a handle on the issue,” he said.

Hartford topped the list of incidents of stun gun use at 51, followed by Norwalk (40), East Hartford (36) and state police (34). The state’s largest city, Bridgeport, reported 16 uses, while New Haven had 15.

Local police officials also cautioned against making quick judgments about the data. Differences between departments, including percentages of officers carrying stun guns, make it difficult to compare cities and towns, they said.

Norwalk Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik said all 177 officers in his department have stun guns, while other departments don’t require all officers to carry them. He also cautioned against comparing stun gun use figures with population race data.

“The officers don’t pick and choose who’s going to resist arrest or flee,” Kulhawik said. “Tasers have proven to be a less lethal method that avoids injury to the officer and the suspect. Serious injuries to suspects have dropped dramatically since the Taser became a tool.”

Hartford Deputy Police Chief Brian Foley said police officials are reviewing their data and plan to use the information to improve how the department serves the city. He said 136 of the department’s 400 officers carry stun guns.

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A Wadsworth woman was sentenced Thursday to six months in jail for beating her 5-year-old stepson with a belt last year.

KATIE ANDERSON / GAZETTE
Krysta A. McBride, 25, of Wadsworth, stands next to her lawyer David McArtor, of Medina, during her sentencing Thursday morning on child endangering charges. She was accused of beating her 5-year-old step-son. Medina County Common Pleas Judge Joyce V. Kimbler sentenced McBride to 180 days in jail and three years of probation with psychological treatment.

Krysta A. McBride, 25, was charged May with two counts of child endangering, after beating her stepson in March. McBride pleaded not guilty in June and changed her plea to no contest in December.

At the time of the offense, the child’s father, McBride’s husband, was in a different part of the house when she beat the child with a belt, according to Medina County Prosecutor Dean Holman.

“The child was needlessly beaten with a belt on the back and covered with bruises,” Holman said. “The child has fully recovered physically, and is undergoing counseling.”

Assistant Prosecutor Michael McNamara asked Medina County Common Pleas Judge Joyce V. Kimbler to sentence McBride to prison.

“The child’s injuries are the worst I’ve ever seen without broken bones,” he said. “It appears there is certainly an anger issue.”

McBride’s attorney, David McArtor, of Medina, said in court that McBride’s “significant psychological issues,” which he said stem from her being assaulted earlier in her life, played a role in her abuse of her stepson.

“She cannot believe that she has become what she’s hated most, and for that she hates herself,” McArtor said.

McBride called her actions “unforgivable.”

“I did something that no parent should ever do,” she said. “For me, that’s unforgivable. I don’t deserve to be alive anymore.”

Kimbler disagreed.

“Nothing is unforgivable,” she said to McBride.

McArtor said McBride has been in an intensive parenting intervention program and also receives psychological treatment.

“Since the moment she changed her plea, she’s been a different person,” he said.

After her jail time, McBride will have three years of probation and will have to continue her psychological treatment and will be on a drug monitoring program. She is also to have no contact with either of her two stepchildren through her probation period.

A Medina man accused of having a 2-year-old in his apartment where he and the child’s mother were manufacturing methamphetamine pleaded not guilty Thursday in Medina County Common Pleas Court.

KATIE ANDERSON / GAZETTE
Jerry Canfield, 36, of Medina, appears Thursday in a video in Medina County Common Pleas Court next to his attorney Richard Barbera and Common Pleas Judge Joyce V. Kimbler. Canfield, accused of having a 2-year-old child in his apartment where he was manufacturing methamphetamine with the child’s mother, plead not guilty.

The Medina County Drug Task Force said Jerry Canfield, 36, wasn’t at Liberty Plaza Apartments, 253 Abbeyville Road, when his home was raided Jan. 6.

He was arrested later by Lorain County sheriff’s deputies on charges of possession of meth and illegal manufacturing of drugs. The manufacturing charge against Canfield was enhanced to a first-degree felony because of the presence of the child.

The child’s mother, Erica Grabowski, 32, who was also residing at the apartment with the child, was arrested at the scene and charged with illegal assembly of chemicals. Her charge also was enhanced to a second-degree felony because her child was present.  Grabowski also pleaded not guilty at her arraignment Monday.

Medina County Job & Family Services case workers placed the 2-year-old in emergency custody.

The task force agents, along with Medina police officers, found what they called an active “one-pot, meth lab reactionary vessel.” They evacuated the area and cleaned up what were called hazardous materials from the apartment.

Both Grabowski and Canfield are being held at the Medina County Jail. Grabowski is being held on $75,000 bond and Canfield on $100,000 bond. Their trial dates are scheduled for March.

Canfield was convicted of heroin possession in 2013.

The audience may have thought some of the budding “lawyers” participating on Friday in the 33rd annual Ohio Mock Trial competition were real litigators.

BOB FINNAN / GAZETTE
Hannah Smith, a junior at Buckeye High School, played the role of a bailiff Friday in the Ohio Mock Trial competition held at Medina County Courthouse.

“I’ve seen some presentations that you would have sworn the kids were attorneys,” Revere High School legal adviser Tom Kelley said. “Some of the kids have performed better than some attorneys I’ve seen in the courtroom.”

Teams from Buckeye, Cloverleaf and Revere competed at the Medina County Courthouse. The event, sponsored by the Medina County Bar Association, used the courtrooms of Judge Christopher Collier, Judge Joyce V. Kimbler and Judge Kevin Dunn.

Collier didn’t have to be persuaded to take part in the mock trials.

“I’ve been doing this since I’ve been on the bench,” he said. “These kids are wonderful. These kids have so much poise. They are really, really interested.

“They are sincere. They’ve worked hard. These kids have a lot of energy and drive to do this. I’m so glad they bring it to us. We benefit from it.”

Collier said he gets pumped working with the students.

“I love it,” he said. “It charges me up. If you do the things we do, and get a chance to do this, it’s really, really fun. This is the best Friday that you can imagine for me. I really like it.”

Buckeye junior Hannah Smith, 17, played the role of a bailiff in one trial and a witness in another.

She said she wasn’t nervous at all playing a bailiff.

“All rise,” she said. “Hear ye, hear ye.”

Smith said she has some interest in a law career.

“I’ve thought about going into it,” she said. “I’m definitely thinking about it. I know that some of our students want to be an attorney. This is exactly what a case would be like. It’s so beneficial. This is the exact scenario someone going into that field would be in.”

Smith said a lot goes into a trial.

“You have to review that case,” she said. “You have to make up your questions. You have to make up your opening statement. You have to do your rebuttals. There’s so much involved.

“You have to be good at debating. You can’t really get upset. You have to present the facts. It’s hard. It’s a lot more than people realize. There’s so much information. Anything involved with the law, it’s a lot of work, but it’s something that’s worthwhile to do into. It will always be around, and it’s fun.”

Kelley, an attorney for Kelley Honeck & Baker in downtown Akron, said the mock trials teach the students a breadth of skills.

“It teaches them how to think and analyze rationally and how to analyze a situation,” he said. “It teaches public speaking skills, debate. Sometimes, some of the other schools will use people in their drama department to be witnesses. It encompasses a lot of different things.”

He said some of the students have aspirations of being lawyers.

“Hopefully, the kids are learning what it’s like to be an attorney, to get a feel for what it’s like to litigate a case,” Kelley said. “(It can) expose the kids to possibly another career path that they might enjoy and might have skills to do.”

Medina attorney Andrew M. Parker, district coordinator for the Ohio Center for Law-Related Education, said he couldn’t announce which team advanced to the regional competition.

He thanked the judges who “made the experience awesome, as always.”

There were mock trials in 27 counties in Ohio. More than 1,000 legal professionals served as volunteer judges, competition coordinators and team advisers.

WASHINGTON — Police across the United States are rethinking how they use force amid national outrage over questionable shootings and violent arrests.

The changes include efforts in Dallas to train officers to de-escalate situations by moving backward during target practice and arming some with sponge projectiles rather than guns. In Camden County, New Jersey, officers are taught about the sanctity of life and encouraged to take time to defuse a situation, even if a suspect is wildly waving a knife at them.

After months of work, nearly 200 law enforcement leaders gathered in Washington on Friday to review and discuss new guiding principles that, if enacted by the roughly 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, would significantly remake how policing has been done for decades. The 30 principles include an unprecedented acknowledgment from leading law enforcement professionals that officers should go beyond the Supreme Court-adopted basic legal standard that asks what a “reasonable officer” would do in such a situation, and that officers should focus on preserving all human lives in any encounter.

“There’s an expression, ‘Lawful but awful,'” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, who led the effort to develop the principles. “I think (these principles) would impact on some level these really tragic shootings of the mentally ill, the homeless person, the unarmed person. It could have an enormous impact.”

The group’s principles, which will be released officially in an upcoming report, also require officers to respond proportionally to a suspect, imagining the public’s perception of that response, and to communicate effectively instead of, for example, repeatedly telling a suspect to drop the weapon. The principles also recommend departments stop training on what it called “outdated concepts,” such as the “21-foot-rule,” which refers to the distance an armed suspect with a knife can close before an officer can draw their weapon. Instead, officers are encouraged to create more distance and use cover, so that they give themselves more time to respond.

Researchers traveled with police chiefs to Scotland last year to study how police there, who are nearly all unarmed, use distance, often backing away from suspects with their hands up, for example, to encourage calm. In one video shown Friday, officers in downtown Camden County encountered a man high on narcotics who had threatened a man in a restaurant with a knife last November. Video showed officers walking with the man for four city blocks, clearing pedestrians ahead of him and telling other responders to standby, as he wildly waved his knife at them.

“About a year and a half ago we would’ve shot and killed him, there’s no doubt in my mind,” said Camden County Police Chief Scott Thomson. But “we were very happily trying to walk him back to Philadelphia,” he joked. A little over a year ago the department added the sanctity of life to their use-of-force policy.

In Dallas, the department is providing 100 blue-tipped sponge projectiles to trained patrol officers who may use those less-lethal rounds as early as June. Once on scene, patrol officers would back up and put their guns away and allow specially trained officers to take over the problem, said Dallas police Deputy Chief Jeffrey Cotner.

“We’re trying to instill in every opportunity, de-escalation, distance,” Cotner said. He said when officers begin qualifying on the gun range in March they’ll move away from the targets, not toward them.

But Geoffrey Alpert, a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, said what’s key is not only having these principles, but that law enforcement uses and enforces them.

“I think a lot of departments have them,” Alpert said. “A lot of departments have very good policies, very good procedures and good training, but they’re not followed.”

Los Angeles Police Protective League Director Jamie McBride, a detective who is one of nine representing the LAPD’s 9,800 sworn officers, said the new principles weren’t new and were common sense. He also noted that American officers, unlike those in Scotland, patrol communities that are often heavily armed and violent.

“It’s always been about preservation of life. That goes to both sides — the police and the suspect,” McBride said. “We’ve always learned to try to communicate. We’ve always tried to de-escalate. We know all this stuff. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world.”

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FERGUSON, Mo. — Ferguson city leaders have spent months negotiating a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, a plan that calls for sweeping changes to police practices in the St. Louis suburb where 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot. Now, residents get their say.

The first of three public meetings on the proposed consent decree Tuesday night will be followed by comment sessions Saturday and Feb. 9, when the city council could approve the agreement.

If approved, the agreement would likely avert a civil rights lawsuit against Ferguson. The consent decree envisions a top-to-bottom reshaping of how police officers conduct stops, searches and arrests, use their firearms and respond to demonstrations. Ferguson officials also agreed to rewrite their municipal code to restrict the use of fines and jail time for petty violations.

The city’s cost of implementing the changes will be “significant,” spokesman Jeff Small said, but the amount has not been calculated. It will likely add to the financial difficulties of a municipality expected to make layoffs to help reduce a $2.8 million deficit. The deficit is due in part to costs such as legal fees, lost sales tax from businesses damaged in protests over the shooting, overtime for officers during the protests, and lost revenue from municipal court reforms.

Ferguson voters will consider two tax increases in April to help offset the deficit — one imposing an economic development sales tax, the other a property tax increase that would cost about $76 annually for a home worth $100,000.

The Justice Department investigated after the killing of Brown, who was black and unarmed, by white Ferguson officer Darren Wilson in 2014. A St. Louis County grand jury and the Justice Department declined to prosecute Wilson, who resigned in November 2014. But the shooting resulted in protests and promoted a wave of national scrutiny about police use of force and law enforcement’s interactions with minorities.

In March, the Justice Department issued a report critical of Ferguson’s police practices and a municipal court system that made money on the backs of the poor and minority residents. It found officers routinely used excessive force, issued petty citations and made baseless traffic stops in Ferguson, where about two-thirds of the 21,000 residents are black but the vast majority of police officers are white.

Within days of the report, Ferguson’s police chief, municipal judge and city manager resigned.

Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III and other city leaders began negotiating with the Justice Department in July. Recommendations were detailed in a 131-page proposed consent decree released Wednesday.

Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, wrote to Knowles that the agreement will “ensure that police and court services in Ferguson are provided in a manner that fully promotes public safety, respects the fundamental rights of all Ferguson residents, and makes policing in Ferguson safer and more rewarding for officers.”

A statement from the city called the proposal “the best agreement that the city’s representatives were able to obtain for the citizens of Ferguson.”

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The Medina Police Department has hired two new officers.

Patrick Berarducci

Andrew Dziak was hired Jan. 20. Police Chief Patrick Berarducci said the second officer, Michael Googe, will be starting at the Ohio Highway Patrol Academy.

“(Googe) needs to go to basic training,” Berarducci said. “We start them down there. That’s the police academy for us.”

Dziak already is certified by the state.

Berarducci said the department will be fully staffed when the new officers join the force: Medina will have 39 full-time officers and one part-time.

None are black.

The Rev. Cornell Carter, pastor at Second Baptist Church in Medina, a member of Medina’s Civil Service Commission and co-chair of the Medina Diversity Project, said the city and the commission are committed to a diverse workforce. However, he said the applicant pool has not been diverse as of late.

Cornell Carter

He said the function of the commission is to advertise and test for available openings for the city and Medina Schools. Commission members will check applicants to make sure they meet qualifications for the various openings. They will present applicants to be interviewed and eventually hired.

“We have attended a number of career fairs in order to encourage qualified applicants to apply in the city,” he said. “We are being proactive and taking the steps necessary to hire qualified applicants. We are attempting to cast a broader net where we advertise to reach different applicants.”

He said it’s the commission’s job to “share with the rest of the world what a great place Medina is to live, work and raise a family.”

Chief Berarducci explained, “We deal with the list the Civil Service Commission gives us. We play no role in making that list. I get a list of 10 names for one officer vacancy. We deal with the 10 we are given and put them through the solicitation process.”

They will give applicants a polygraph test and a physical, among other things, before they are offered a position.

“I don’t care what their racial makeup is,” Berarducci said Tuesday in an interview with The Gazette. “I want honest people that will do a good job. Their mental stability and integrity are important factors.

“I don’t get bogged down (with their race). That’s for the political people to do. It’s important for us to select the best candidates available to us. They go to job fairs and other minority recruiting trying to get applicants. I did not see one (minority) on the list I’ve been given.”

The American Community Survey, a division of the U.S. Census Bureau, reported in a five-year estimate from 2010-14 that Medina city’s population was 26,544, with 1,203 black residents, or 4.5 percent.

“We maintain a high standard,” Carter said. “It’s a competitive process. You want the best workforce. We know there are diverse candidates out there.

“It has not been a lack of effort by the commission or the city. How do you stimulate the factors that encourage people to apply for a position in a geographical area? We have a great quality of life in Medina. We want to make sure we put Medina’s best foot forward.”

A 42-year-old man was charged Friday with the shooting deaths of two of his housemates, police said. Dean Simms, 42, was charged with two counts of aggravated murder after Cindy Gesaman, 52, and Randy Szychowicz, 45, were found dead in their Hinckley Township home Friday morning, according to Hinckley police.

Hinckley police and Brunswick police responded to a report of a shooting at 2:37 a.m. Friday. It was unclear who made the report.

The bodies of Gesaman and Szychowicz were found inside the home on 2629 Babcock Road. Both had suffered gunshot wounds to the head, according to the Medina County coroner’s office. Police took Simms into custody and charged him later in the day.

Medina Municipal Court records don’t show convictions beyond drunken driving and other traffic offenses for Sims.

Neighbors said they believed the residents of the home on Babcock Road were, for the most part, quiet individuals.

“They party here and there but nothing crazy,” next-door neighbor Lindsay Watkins said. “They kind of stayed to themselves.”

Neighbor Pam Skaroupka, who lives several houses away on Babcock Road, said the three were siblings. The brothers, Simms and Szychowicz, had been living in the home for several years, and Gesaman moved in about a year ago, she said.

Police said they could not confirm a relationship among the three.

Watkins said she believed Gesaman’s husband or boyfriend also lived in the house, but she did not know the person’s name.

According to the Medina County Auditor’s office, Stanley and Rita Szychowicz own the property, which was valued at $118,270. A phone message to the Szychowiczes was not returned.

Skaroupka said she believes the three siblings are Rita’s children.

Skaroupka said she often greeted Gesaman during daily walks.

“She was such a nice lady,” Watkins said. “She didn’t bother nobody.”

Gesaman collected scrap metal, which she cleaned before selling, Skaroupka said.

Skaroupka said she spoke to the brothers less often and occasionally heard arguments.

Watkins said sometimes they would blow snow from her driveway or help secure her dogs when they got out of the house.

Neither Watkins nor Skaroupka said they heard anything unusual Thursday night or early Friday morning, but Watkins said she was awake and saw the police arrive.

“This morning around 2:30 the dogs woke us up because they were barking,” Watkins said. “We looked out the window and there were flashlights all around. We thought it was random people, but it was cops.”

The Hinckley Police Department is leading the investigation, according to Medina County Sheriff Tom Miller. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Medina County Sheriff’s Office and Medina County Prosecutor’s Office are assisting.

A 16-year-old on LSD ate glass while trying to enter a Granger Township home last weekend, according to police.

But the Richfield teen’s father disputes the police’s claims, stating his son was seeking help after a fight with another teen. The father said his son never took LSD or ingested glass. The father’s name is being withheld so not to identify his minor son.

Bath Township Police Chief Michael McNeely said he stands by his department’s version of events.

“Our body camera accurately reflects the young man’s behavior,” he said.

Bath Township Police and the Medina County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of an unidentified male breaking windows at a home in the 1500 block of North Medina Line Road shortly after midnight Saturday.

According to the Bath police report, the teen was “reportedly eating the glass and bleeding from injuries” prior to officers’ arrival. Residents at the home said the teen entered the house and, after he was removed by the homeowner, continued trying to try to get inside, breaking several windows in the process, according to a sheriff’s report.

Video footage from a police body camera obtained Thursday by The Gazette shows the teen on the house’s porch as the first officers arrive on the scene. A nearby window was broken and smeared with blood and the teen, who was wearing only boxers, is seen on the film bleeding from cuts on his arms.

During the 29-minute video, the teen can be heard shouting various phrases, which police described as “nonsensical,” and answering several questions from police. In the video, an officer asks the teen what he took. The teen responds, “LSD.”

Police asked the 16-year-old to lie on the ground and, after pulling away twice, he was restrained, the report said. He was bandaged at the scene and taken to Medina Hospital. The teen was released later that day, according to his father.

The teen’s father said his son was in shock and law enforcement’s description of the events twist the truth.

“They pretty much threw my kid under the bus,” he said.

The father said his son, a Revere High School student, was visiting friends at a nearby house and left on foot after a fight. While his son was walking down Medina Line Road, his son’s friend drove by, the father said.

The teen tried get into the car and either got caught in the door or held onto the handle while he was dragged 10 to 15 feet along the road, which tore off his clothes. The teen rolled into the ditch, got up and ran toward the nearest lighted house, his father said.

According to the father, the teen, in shock, banged on the window in an attempt to get help. His father said the cuts on his arms were from slipping in the glass and falling.

“He doesn’t recall ever saying anything to that effect,” he said.

His son didn’t have any cuts near or in his mouth, suggesting the teen did not eat any glass, he said.

The teen also had friction burns on his back and stomach, which the father said is consistent with being dragged by a car.

He described his son as his best friend.

“My son is a good kid,” he said.

The teen has not been charged but a report from the sheriff’s office dated Jan. 30 suggests forwarding charges of aggravated burglary to the juvenile prosecutor’s office.

The sheriff’s office, which is investigating the case, said the teen had not been questioned as of Thursday afternoon and the investigation is ongoing.

A Hinckley Township man charged in the shooting deaths of his two siblings talks about killing them in a 911 call to police Friday.

“You should send like everything you got to 2629 Babcock Road,” 42-year-old Dean Simms says in the recording of the 911 call The Gazette obtained.

ELIZABETH DOBBINS / GAZETTE
Dean Simms, 42, of Hinckley, appeared in Medina Municipal Court on Monday for a hearing on two counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of his sister, Cynthia Gesaman, and Simms’ brother, Randy Szychowicz. Shown at left is Medina County Prosecutor Dean Holman and Simms’ defense lawyer Robert Campbell, who was appointed by the court.

When a Hinckley dispatcher asks why he is calling, Simms replies, “I just killed my brother and sister.”

Simms, 42, was charged with two counts of aggravated murder after police found the bodies of his sister and brother — Cynthia Gesaman, 52, and Randy Szychowicz, 45 — inside their shared Babcock Road house in Hinckley Township.

Simms was born Dean Szychowicz, but changed his name for unknown reasons, Hinckley Township Police Chief Tim Kalavsky told The Gazette on Monday.

The Babcock Road house is owned by Rita and Stanley Szychowicz. Rita Szychowicz is the mother of Dean, Cynthia and Randy, according to an obituary from Bollinger Funeral Goods and Services of Brunswick.

Simms, whose bond was set at $10 million Monday in Medina Municipal Court, called the Hinckley Police Department to report the shooting at 2:37 a.m. Friday.

It was the second time police were called to the residence that day.

Kalavsky said police were familiar with the residence from previous calls.

“We’ve been there quite a few times,” the chief said.

During the 911 call, Simms refers to the visit from police hours before.

“Hinckley police were here earlier and you know I just couldn’t deal with it anymore so I snapped,” he says. “I’m sorry. So now I’m out of two siblings. It’s not a pretty sight.”

A police report titled “Call for Service” at 12:30 a.m. Friday said “male subject Dean is intoxicated and throwing beer bottles at his sister.”

The caller is listed on the report as “Cindy.”

The report said the incident was “verbal only and parties have been separated.”

Kalavsky said the motive for the shooting remains under investigation.

“Apparently this (unrest) has been going for some time,” Kalavsky said.

During the 911 call, Simms tells the dispatcher he used a shotgun, but Kalavsky said he couldn’t confirm the type of weapon used.

According to the Medina County Coroner’s Office, Gesaman and Szychowicz were killed by a shot to the head.

During the 911 call, the dispatcher asks Simms if either of his siblings is breathing.

“Oh, no, no, no. Their heads are gone,” he replies.

Simms tells the dispatcher the body of his brother is on a futon in the living room and his sister’s is on a water bed, possibly in a different room.

Kalavsky said Monday he couldn’t release details of the crime scene.

Simms tells the dispatcher that he and his brother collected guns as a hobby, but assures police he is unarmed at the time of the call.

Simms leaves the home through a garage door where he meets police, according to the 911 call.

Kalavsky said Simms did not resist when officers arrived.

During Simms’ appearance in Medina Municipal Court where bond was set Monday, Judge Dale H. Chase approved Simms’ request for a court-appointed attorney.

Simms’ appointed attorney, Robert Campbell, said his client, a Brunswick High School graduate, has never been to prison. Medina County court records show Simms has past charges for operating a vehicle impaired and traffic offenses, but no prior felonies.

During the hearing, county Prosecutor Dean Holman argued in favor of a $10 million bond for Simms, which Chase approved.

“There is a significant danger to the community,” Holman said, noting the aggravated murder charges are eligible for the death penalty.

Dean Simms, 42, was indicted Wednesday by the grand jury in Medina Municipal Court in connection with the death of his brother Randy Szychowicz, 45, and sister Cynthia Gesaman, 52.

Simms, of 2629 Babcock Road in Hinckley, charged with two counts of murder and one count of aggravated murder for each victim but can only be convicted on one count for each, County Prosecutor Dean Holman said.

“We do that to make sure the jury has all the choices,” Holman said.

He could be convicted of aggravated murder if the jury decides the crime was premeditated.

Aggravated murder can carry a 20-, 25- or 30-year prison sentence or a life sentence without parole.

In some cases, aggravated murder can also carry an option for the death penalty, but the grand jury’s current indictment does not allow for this option in this case. Holman said the prosecuting office could return to the grand jury to add the death penalty option, depending on the family’s wishes or additional information uncovered by investigations.

The murder charge carries a sentence of 15 years to life with no option for a death penalty.

Each of Simms’ charges has a firearm specification, which carries a three-year sentence.

If convicted, Simms would serve the firearm punishment before the murder or aggravated murder charges. According to the indictment, the firearm specification was added to each charge for the possession or use of a shotgun during the murders.

Simms’ case was transferred from Medina Municipal Court to Medina County Common Pleas Court after the indictment. A date for the next court appearance has not been posted.

Simms called police in the early morning Feb. 5, to report the shooting of his brother and his sister. During the phone call Simms said he “snapped” after a “life long of headache” and used a shotgun to kill two of his siblings, with whom he lived with in a Hinckley Township house.

Police found the bodies of Szychowicz and Gesaman inside the house with gunshot wound to their heads, according to the county coroner’s office. When police arrived at the house, Simms was arrested without resistance, Hinckley Township Police Chief Tim Kalavsky told The Gazette on Monday.

The case is still under investigation by the Hinckley Police Department. A dispatcher said the department is still collecting statements from the officers and sheriff deputies who arrived at the scene last week.

There are almost 1,000 law enforcement agencies in Ohio and the state is asking them to become “certified” by this time next year.

The Ohio Collaborative Community Police Advisory Board wants to strengthen community and police relations. By being certified, they’ll have to meet new statewide standards on the use of force, including deadly force, and recruitment and hiring standards.

David Arbogast

One local police chief, Dave Arbogast of Medina Township, is scheduled to be a “peer evaluator,” who will assess different police departments in the state.

“It’s a statewide program,” Arbogast said. “I can’t do any agencies in Medina County or any that touch Medina County. They want to make sure it’s not part of a good-old-boy system.”

The standards are the first of their kind in Ohio and were developed by the 12-member collaborative in August. To help certify Ohio’s nearly 1,000 law enforcement agencies, the state has partnered with the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association and the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police on a process to ensure they are in compliance with Ohio’s new standards.

Arbogast said he’s scheduled to attend a training session Feb. 29 in Columbus.

“I think it’s a step to bring current trends to what’s going on with policing,” he said. “We want to make sure there’s more accountability and to get everyone on the same page. It’s a work in progress.”

Ohio will publish a report by March 2017 listing all agencies that have adopted and fully implemented the new state standards.

Arbogast looks at being an evaluator as an honor.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “My trustees support (it).”

Arbogast has experience as an educator at the University of Akron and the Medina County Career Center, where he taught criminal justice.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” he said. “It’s a step in making us more professional. I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out.”

He said there’s disconnect between the general public and the law-enforcement community.

“We’re not looked at in a good light,” Arbogast said. “We have to look at changing that.”

Bridging the gap is the state’s goal, too.

“As our police departments implement these new standards, they will be taking an important step forward in strengthening relationships in their communities,” John Born, director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety and co-chair of the Ohio Collaborative, said in a prepared statement. “Given how well Ohioans have come together on improving community-police relations and the positive feedback we have received about our new standards, there appears to be widespread confidence that we are moving in the right direction.”

Attorneys sparred Wednesday over the admission of evidence in an upcoming murder trial, which prosecutors say could explain the motives of a Brunswick man who is charged with killing his mother in 2013.

ELIZABETH DOBBINS / GAZETTE
James Tench appeared in Medina County Common Pleas Judge Joyce Kimbler’s court on Wednesday during a pre-trial hearing.

Medina County Prosecutor Dean Holman argued that James Tench, 30, stole from his mother by using her credit cards and bank accounts to write bad checks during the late summer and fall of 2013. Concerned his mother, Mary Tench, 55, was going to file a police report, Tench killed her, Holman alleged during Wednesday’s pre-trial hearing.

“The crime did not take place in a vacuum,” Holman said.

Holman said Tench’s mother had a list of the fraudulent check numbers written on a copy of a newspaper in her bedroom. A piece of paper, which said “leave tell police” in his mother’s handwriting was found in Tench’s room after his mother was found dead, prosecutors said.

“These aren’t matters of speculation,” he said. “We have hard evidence.”

Defense attorney Kerry O’Brien countered that admitting the checks and other outside evidence undercuts the jury’s presumption of Tench’s innocence.

O’Brien said the evidence Holman is asking to use in the trial would lead the jury to believe Tench is a “bad guy” and therefore more likely to have killed his mother.

Holman also asked Common Pleas Judge Joyce V. Kimbler to admit into evidence a robbery from a Strongsville restaurant that Tench committed in 2013.

Kimbler did not make a decision Wednesday. She said she will rule closer to start of the trial, which is scheduled for Monday.

Tench could face the death penalty if convicted on charges of aggravated murder, murder, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and tampering with evidence.

Mary Tench was found dead Nov. 12, 2013, in the back of her SUV, which was parked in a lot off Carquest Drive in Brunswick, less than a mile south of the Camden Lane home she and her son shared.

According to police and autopsy reports, she died of skull fractures and blunt trauma to her head and neck.

Tench filed a missing persons report in November 2013 because he hadn’t seen his mother since the night before, according to court documents.

He is awaiting trial in Richland Correctional Institution, where he serving a five-year sentence for the restaurant robbery.

Jury selection began Monday in the capital murder case of a Brunswick man accused of killing his mother in 2013.

James Tench

The jury selection process is expected extend into next week in the trial of James Tench, 30, Medina County Prosecutor Dean Holman said. He said the long selection process is typical in this type of case. Jury selection likely will continue today and Wednesday and then resume next week, Holman said.

Tench is facing charges of aggravated murder, murder, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and tampering with evidence. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Tench’s mother, Mary Tench, 55, was found dead Nov. 12, 2013, in the back of her SUV, less than a mile from her and her son’s Camden Lane home. She died of skull fractures and trauma to her head, according to autopsy reports.

Tench had filed a missing persons report for his mother before authorities located her body.

Prosecutors allege Tench was stealing from his mother through checks and credit cards and robbed a Strongsville restaurant to pay back the missing money from his mother’s account. Prosecutors argued during a pre-trial hearing that his mother knew about his credit card theft and he killed her to stop her from going to police.

The defense argued during the hearing that admitting the theft allegations as evidence would undercut the jury’s presumption of Tench’s innocence.

According to court records on file Monday, Common Pleas Judge Joyce V. Kimbler had not yet ruled on whether to admit documents related to these allegations as evidence during the trial.

Tench received a five-year prison sentence for the Strongsville robbery and is being held at the Richland Correctional Institution.

A man who told a Hinckley dispatcher during a 911 emergency call that he killed his brother and sister pleaded not guilty Monday to counts of murder and aggravated murder.

Dean Simms, 42, was arraigned on four counts of murder and two counts of aggravated murder, each with a firearm specification. His pre-trial was set for April 14 and his trial for April 18 in Medina County Common Pleas Court.

Simms was arrested after police found his brother, Randy Szychowicz, 45, and sister, Cynthia Gesaman, 52, dead inside the Hinckley Township home the siblings shared at 2:37 a.m. Feb. 5.

The Medina County coroner said each died from a gunshot wound to the head.

Police were called to the house at 2629 Babcock Road by Gesaman shortly after midnight the same night, according to a police report.

The report said Simms was “intoxicated” and throwing beer bottles at Gesaman. Police separated the two and left.

They returned more than an hour later after Simms called 911 and told police he killed his siblings, according to police.

If convicted of aggravated murder, Simms could be sentenced to life without parole. His indictment does not carry the possibility of the death sentence.

Simms is being held in Medina County jail on a $1 million bond.

Simms changed his name from Szychowicz.

Five Medina County safety forces have applied for $500,000 in state grants from the Local Government Safety Capital Grant program.

They are:

• Medina County Sheriff’s Office
• Medina Police Department
• Medina Township Police Department
• Montville Township Police Department
• Medina County Office of Emergency Management
• Homeland Security

Each agency would receive $100,000. The Ohio Legislature created the program last year.

If the grants are approved, the agencies will upgrade their radio system and purchase portable radios for police in Medina and Montville and Medina townships.

Each entity would donate $25,000 of the $100,000 for a new console that is needed by the Sheriff’s Office. The grant decisions are expected to be announced May 19.

“If the dollars are available, we’d place the order for the addition console and make the move,” Medina Mayor Dennis Hanwell said Thursday during a news conference.

If the agencies don’t get the grants, buying the new digital radios might be too cost-prohibitive. The sheriff’s office upgraded its radio system in 2015 in what they called Phase I at a reported cost of $850,000.

Alan Close, president of Cleveland Communication Inc., which designs, builds and maintains public safety radio systems, said the sheriff’s radio system is designed to provide 95 percent outdoor coverage throughout the county using portable radios.

Jonelle Meredith, communications coordinator for the sheriff’s office, said the radios, known as APCO P-25, cost about $1,200 apiece for handheld products. They cost $1,700 or $1,800 for mobile radios used in police vehicles and about $27,000 for dispatch consoles. Meredith said the department would need six dispatch consoles.

The sheriff’s office wants to “co-locate” dispatch services with Medina police. Medina police already handle dispatching duties for Montville and Medina townships and the Life Support Team. When the move is made — the exact date has not been established — Medina police will have two spots in the sheriff’s six-person communications center, 555 Independence Drive, Medina.

“The idea of combining our applications is to co-locate the dispatch operations,” Sheriff Tom Miller said. “Medina will have its own (dispatchers) with the sheriff’s department. We’ll be sharing space, which is the purpose behind this. There will be some cost savings to that as we move forward and understand what needs to be done to make that work.”

Hanwell said he’s talked about this collaboration for at least 10 years.

“This seems to make the most sense,” he said.

He said it’s the ultimate vision of both departments to eventually combine the two operations.

Hanwell said the city has 10 full-time dispatchers, including one lieutenant that oversees the department, at a cost of about $1 million a year. The sheriff’s office employs 13 dispatchers and said its cost is about the same.

“One advantage I see — we have two dispatchers on each shift,” Hanwell said. “The sheriff’s department has its two or three. There are times when our dispatchers are not very busy and the sheriff’s department is being overrun, and vice versa. The ability to have those folks in the same room lends itself on the ability of assisting one another with ease.

“By having this all together, it just reinforces the efficiency, effectiveness and the collaboration that I think we are all striving for.”

Hanwell said eventually voters might be asked to approve a levy to fund the dispatch operations or possibly there could be a sales tax proposal.

“Once we get an outside funding operation to combine the two units, the advantage of that is theoretically, you could set up a controlling board or an operating board,” he said.

Medina’s dispatch center received about 48,000 calls last year or more than 130 per day.

“This is a significant part of our operation,” Medina Police Chief Pat Berarducci said. “The more we can improve it and make it more cost-effective, the better off every one is.”

The sheriff office’s communications department got 69,000 calls last year or about 189 a day.

If the departments receive the grants, they want to purchase new portable radios for Medina, Montville and Medina Township police.

“This move is more for the greater good for all the communities involved to increase safety and the ability for (responding) with each other,” Miller said.

Phase II of the program is getting the portable radios.

“This grant does not pay for everything that everybody needs,” Miller said. “It puts it in a strong move forward to achieve the co-location and make greater use of the 700 (megahertz) system we have in place.”

Close said the federal government wants all local, state and federal agencies on a common platform.

“The APCO P-25 is the standard the federal government has settled on,” he said. “As the agencies modernize their radio systems, they are encouraged through grant funding requirements to go to the P-25. Medina County has the P-25 standard on the air now. That will allow all the agencies to talk to each other on a common platform.”

Many of the police chiefs raved about the digital radios.

“It works great,” Berarducci said. “We went all over the county using the portable. With our evaluation, I don’t think we’re going to need the mobile units. We’ll just use the portable radios in the car. I talked from the outer limits of Montville and Medina Township and it’s crystal clear.

“It’s a huge improvement. We’re not going to face the dead zones we faced before.”

Just as he and his family were lying down to sleep Monday night, Brad Dietrich heard loud fire alarms outside the door.

He and his girlfriend, Sarah Murdock, who have lived in their Hickory Hill Apartments unit in Brunswick since October, got up and looked through the keyhole in the door to find smoke in the hallway coming from the unit across from them.

That’s when they shut the door, picked up her 15-month-old son, Daniel, “got the car keys and left,” Dietrich said.

Brad Dietrich, 24, and his girlfriend. Sarah Murdock, 22, and Sarah’s son, Daniel, 15 months, visit St. Ambrose Parish on Tuesday afternoon to accept donations. They were burned out of their home Monday night at Hickory Hill Apartments. (LAWRENCE PANTAGES / GAZETTE)

On Tuesday morning, the couple, accompanied by Dietrich’s mother, Susan Naff, took the first steps to rebuilding their life. Their apartment is believed to be a total loss.

Nearby on Pearl Road, St. Ambrose Parish opened its doors during the night shortly after hearing about the fire . The Rev. Rob Ramser, assistant pastor, said within 15 minutes of the fire starting, people started bringing in goods to be donated to anyone in need. Ramser attributed the fast response to the spread of the news on social media.

Donations were stacked on long tables in the parish’s family life center, categorized by size and type of clothing. There were dozens of pairs of shoes, bags of diapers, breakfast cereal and one table stacked high with stuffed animal toys.

And the contributions haven’t been solely from the parish’s 16,000 members, but non-members as well.

“It’s just overwhelming” how willing the community has been to help, Ramser said.

Naff said she was thankful how “unbelievably lucky” Dietrich and Murdock and Daniel were able to get out of the apartment safely, considering the fire started across the hall, and how quickly it spread in a few minutes.

“I got a call around 10:30 from Brad, asking, ‘What do I do?’ I told him to call 911, then I got in the car and went there. … The entire roof was engulfed,” Naff said.

Naff said she lives on Blueberry Hill Drive, just a short distance away. Naff said as soon as she pulled into the apartment complex and held Daniel, residents from other buildings came up to her asking if he needed water or extra clothing.

Dietrich and Murdock were among many others who sought food and basic necessities in the church’s family center.

Fire department officials said earlier Tuesday that the estimate was 50 to 60 people had been displaced by the blaze. American Red Cross representatives responded immediately with a variety of services.

At St. Ambrose, so many items were donated by lunchtime Tuesday that a partition wall was put up in the gymnasium. Dozens of volunteers were busy organizing food and clothing on one side of the partition while on the other side, still more volunteers put items on tables in an organized way to help people search for what they needed.

The Rev. Robert Stec estimated that more than 100 volunteers came to work in shifts.

The next step is to see what displaced residents need, and a list is expected to be compiled within two days.

Brunswick Mayor Ron Falconi said that while the circumstances are tragic, the community pulled together.

“The outpouring of support is humbling but not surprising,” he said after a news conference at Brunswick City Hall.

Dietrich said his last thought before leaving the apartment was to grab his car keys because the family had recently gotten a new vehicle and he didn’t want it to be affected by the blaze.

Although he said he knows that the apartment is a total loss, he is holding onto a “sliver of hope” that some things can be salvaged.

“The baby’s first-year mementoes could be all gone,” he said, remembering Daniel’s first birthday party and first haircut.

Dietrich, a graduate of Medina High School, said his family moved into Hickory Hill last October. He previously served four years in the U.S. Army, including being deployed to Afghanistan as a combat engineer.

Dietrich said his father, who lives in Chicago, immediately packed up his car in Illinois and started driving to Medina County to help the young family.

Online, various gofundme pages quickly were set up by loved ones for the displaced residents.

Stec said with so many food and clothing items contributed, the displaced residents also need gift cards and monetary donations. The church was accepting items at 929 Pearl Road, Brunswick.

Contact reporter Ashley Fox at (330) 721-4048 or afox@medina-gazette.com.