4 people, 2 of them children, found dead in Selawik house fire

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Authorities found four people, two of whom were young children, dead after a residential fire in the Northwest Arctic Borough community of Selawik early Tuesday morning.

Alaska State Troopers were alerted to the fire around 6 a.m. Tuesday, according to an online dispatch report. During an investigation, deputy fire marshals found the bodies of four people believed to have been living there — 49-year-old Fred Cleveland, 33-year-old Racienda Russell, a 6-year-old child and a 4-year-old.

When the fire was initially reported, local Selawik Village police officers reported that the four people were unaccounted for. A trooper responded to the village on Tuesday and the team of deputy state fire marshals traveled there from Anchorage.

The four bodies have been sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for positive identification and for autopsies, according to the dispatch report. Their family has been notified.

According to troopers, the home was “completely destroyed” by the blaze. The fire’s cause, as well as its origin, remain undetermined, though the deputy fire marshals did not find anything suspicious in their preliminary investigation.

Copyright 2022 KTUU. All rights reserved.