A Plugged-In Halloween Pumpkin Started a House Fire in Brunswick and Working Smoke Detectors Still Failed to Warn the Family Inside

It was close to 11:30 at night. Caeli Melland and Bailey Hagan were heading home after dropping off thank-you cards from a bridal shower. They took a shortcut down Maxwell Boulevard in Brunswick, Ohio.

That shortcut changed everything.

What they spotted outside a home looked, at first, like a Halloween decoration. Then they slowed down. Saw the smoke. And realized the house was on fire.

A Couple Who Could Have Just Kept Driving

Melland called 911. Hagan, a Medina police officer, got out of the car and started banging on the front door…