On Thursday morning, Lionell Green watched construction vehicles pile debris from the fire that killed his grandmother, two cousins and his cousin's daughter in East Baltimore's Oliver neighborhood Wednesday night. It was a familiar sight. In 1994, he was one of three survivors of a house fire in Southwest Baltimore that killed nine members of his family, seven of them children.

"Death just came right back around," he said.

Investigators were still working to determine the cause of the overnight blaze that led to the city's first fire fatalities of 2010, said Fire Department spokesman Capt. Roman Clark. One man, who was in the basement, was able to escape.

Fire officials had not confirmed the victims' names as of Wednesday night, but a relative identified the four as Phyllis Rouzer, 65; her granddaughters Ericka Morris, 24, and Dynisha Diggs, 14; and Morris's daughter, 2-year-old Tyrceeces Brown.

The fire was reported at 11:10 p.m. and appeared to have started in the front of the first floor of the two-story brick home in the 1600 block of E. Oliver Street in the Oliver community, Baltimore Fire Chief James S. Clack said Thursday. The four victims were in upstairs bedrooms, he said.

The man who survived the blaze told relatives that he heard a smoke alarm go off. However, fire officials did not find evidence of smoke detectors in the house, Clark said.

He urged city residents to take advantage of a free program to install smoke detectors and to ensure they are working.

Clark said firefighters arrived on the scene within three minutes. The fire department has a system of rotating closures in place as a cost-cutting measure, but the closest closed company was the fifth due to report, the spokesman said.

"Nothing hampered with attacking the fire here," Clark said. "Units were on the scene in good time."

Leo Pridget, who lives next door to the blaze, said he woke up when the smoke detectors in his own home went off.

"At first I thought I was dreaming, but it wasn't no dream," he said.

After checking his stove and furnace, Pridget said he discovered smoke seeping into his home from next door through cracks in the floor and wall.

When he got outside, flames were shooting out of the door and windows, he said.

As word of the fire spread Wednesday night, about 30 to 40 relatives of the victims gathered in the 1600 block of Oliver Street, Green said.

The fire left streaks of soot above the windows and charred the home's interior, destroying a place where family would gather after funerals and other events, Green said.

"This house was the meeting place," he said. "We all came together in love when we needed to."

He remembered the Bible his grandmother kept upstairs, marked with the family's milestones. "This was our archives here," Green said.

"She was a mother that tried to keep the family together," said Henriett Rouzer, 37, the eldest woman's daughter. She survived the 1994 fire and was able to save one son, although three of her other children perished.

"Losing my mother and losing my nieces in the same way as I lost my kids ... it hurts," she said.

Rouzer said she helped her mother raise her 14-year-old niece, who would stop by her home before and after school at Friendship Academy. "My niece is like my daughter," she said. Her mother was also vigilant about their smoke detector, she said.

"She made it her business to get a smoke alarm," Rouzer said.

Her mother was a member of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church and worked until her health deteriorated, she said.

Clack said that firefighters did a great job, but smoke detectors could have made a difference.

"Help us help you," he said. Firefighters have installed hundreds of thousands of detectors within the last decade, the fire chief said, and has gone door-to-door to check and install detectors as well.

Clack also encouraged families to practice escape plans with their children.

In 2009, there were 25 fire fatalities, compared to 18 the previous year, Clack said. The statistics are way down from the 1980s and 1990s, when averages were much higher, he said.

A candle started the 1994 fire, in a rowhouse at Hollins and Pulaski streets, according to officials at the time. They said there were no smoke detectors present in that home.

Back on Oliver Street, Green wasn't looking forward to what lay ahead. "This is the easy part, right now," he said, looking at the remains of his grandmother's house. The funerals would be much harder.