New Haven Independent

Ryan and Katonya Whitley fled a fire that broke out at around 10 a.m. on Thursday in their second floor apartment at 83 Beers St. (pictured). They were in the midst of moving into the apartment. No one was injured in the incident.

Just before 11 a.m., the sisters were camped across the street from their house, sitting on a doorstep at the Troup School. Ryan stood in stocking feet, huddled in a black hoody, as she tried to keep her energetic 16-month-old son from toddling away down the sidewalk. Her sister Katonya sat next to her 16-month-old daughter, Jamiya Robinson, who was apparently the cause of the fire.

The little girl turned on the apartment’s electric stove when her mom wasn’t watching, Katonya said. There were some plastic containers on the stove and they started smoking.

“When I went to the kitchen it was just black!” said Ryan. She said she and her sister ran outside with their children.

Belinda Whitfield, their downstairs neighbor, said she was watching Dr. Phil at the time of the fire. She saw the sisters run out, found out what was going on, and called 911.

Katonya said that she and her sister and their kids were in the middle of moving into the Beers Street apartment from a house on Bassett Street, in Newhallville. She said they’ll have to go back and sleep at Bassett again tonight, because of the soot damage in the new apartment.

Assistant Fire Chief Ralph Black said later that the cause of the fire is still under investigation. The smoke damage to the second floor would prevent the occupants from living there for now, he said. It was unclear when they would be able to move back in, he said.

4 Arrested On Crack Charges

Police announced Thursday that they arrested four people who were allegedly selling crack out of a house on Winthrop Avenue.

Here’s what happened, according to police spokesman Officer Joe Avery:

The police department’s drug squad executed a search and seizure warrant at 425 Winthrop Ave. at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. The warrant was the result of confirmed reports that crack cocaine was being sold there.

Detectives arrested two men and a woman who lived in the house, as well as a man from Ansonia. They seized 36.8 grams (1.3 ounces) of crack cocaine, 17.8 grams of Marijuana, $1774, and drug paraphernalia.

The residents of the house were charged with a variety of drug-related crimes.

In other police news, according to Avery:

A 26-year-old man walked into the Hospital of St. Raphael with a gunshot wound to his leg at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. He said he had been shot at 649 Howard Ave. at 7 a.m. that morning.

At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, two men set a 2003 Range Rover on fire behind 22 Bond St. They were not apprehended.

Crime Maps

Click here for a list of major crimes for Dec. 2. Click on the image below to see those crimes placed on a citywide map.

For block-by-block year-to-date crime information, and daily crime maps, check the Independent’s Crime Log.