LORAIN — A family of five escaped a fire at their Lorain home this morning.

The Fire Department was called to 2820 Forest Lane, off of Meister Road on the city’s west side, about 6 a.m.

First responders reported that smoke and flames were coming from the home’s second story, and that the fire appeared to be in the home’s attic. The fire was under control in about 10 minutes, according to fire Lt. Mark Nunez.

Photos by CT Web editor Rona Proudfoot.

The fire started in the area of a ceiling light over a kitchen sink, Nunez said, and damaged the unit’s kitchen and attic.

Twania Henderson, who lives in the second story of the two-family home with her husband and three children, said she woke up, went to the kitchen and could see smoke and a small amount of fire. She woke everyone up, and they all got outside safely.

Damage was estimated at $25,000 to the property and $2,000 to its contents, Nunez said.

Henderson and her family were not able to stay in the house and are being assisted by the Red Cross.

Contact Rona Proudfoot at 329-7124 or rproudfoot@chroniclet.com.

COLUMBUS — The new year is in only its fourth day, and already fires have killed nine people in Ohio in 2010.

Spokesman Shane Cartmill in the Ohio fire marshal’s office says the number is a concern. He says there were just two fire fatalities in the state during the first week of last year.

The latest death was early Monday. A 65-year-old woman was killed by a fire at a mobile home in Portsmouth in southern Ohio.

Lorain County has had a handful of fires but no fire deaths yet in 2010. Frank Sabol died in the last days of 2009 Wednesday in a fire at his West River Road home in Elyria.

The state’s deadliest fire so far in 2010 also was in a mobile home and killed two young children and their parents in the north-central Ohio community of Greenwich on Saturday.

Cartmill says all the fatal fires since New Year’s Day remain under investigation. He says there are few common threads, though in many of the cases there were no working smoke detectors.

Rescue crews have been busy all morning responding to accidents as the wintry weather poses problems for drivers.

The morning was full of reports of cars going off roadways.

Two people were taken to EMH Regional Medical Center after a two-car accident a little after noon in the eastbound lanes of the Ohio Turnpike near the Elyria-North Ridgeville border.

A car with North Carolina plates apparently lost control and T-boned a car with New York plates.

The two people hurt were in the car from New York. Three others refused treatment at the scene.

Traffic on the Turnpike was slowed as crews work to clean up the accident scene.

About an hour later crews responded to a rollover accident on Baumhart Road just north of state Route 113 in Henrietta Township and reported they would be taking one person to Allen Memorial Hospital in Oberlin.

LORAIN — An 11-year-old Lorain boy is out of the hospital after sustaining what Lorain police initially called “serious, life-threatening injuries” in a hit-skip accident early Sunday morning, and a Lorain man faces charges in the incident. (more…)