Email

Print

The senior command of the National Fire Service hosted a press conference this afternoon to explain in details what their findings show. They say someone just left a pot on the stove and forgot to turn it off:

Ted Smith, Fire Chief, National Fire Service
"The fire started from the stove area."

Reporter
"Was the stove left on?"

Ted Smith
"It appears that something was being cooked on the stove, a sort of aluminum type material as it melted and flowed within the top of the stove. We do have pictures but we didn't get it on the computer. That reflected that. When that occurred, the gas tank that was near and the transparent tubing - once the fire started it quickly broke the transparent tubing."

Reporter
"Accidentally left on."

Ted Smith
"Certain types of aluminum pots if left on the stove too long and the liquid evaporated out and is not check, aluminum will melt at 1,200 degrees so it will melt."

Reporter
"And that started the first fire."

Ted Smith
"Right."

Reporter
"And then that fire compromised the plastic butane hose and at that point you go from having a small to a torch fire."

Ted Smith
"Which would rapidly accelerate the fire."

Reporter
"I know the mother survived. Does she know what might have been left on or was it a conscious decision to leave something maybe slow cooking or something?"

Orin Smith, Station Officer, Fire Department
"In an interview I had with the mother, she indicated she had nothing on the stove. That when they got in, they simply turn on the lights and eventually turned them off and they all went to their individual beds. She also stated that the structure had no electrical current. They were receiving electrical feed from the structure at the rear. Close examination of those electrical wirings revealed no indication of an electrical fault. Therefore electrical fault or contribution to the fire has been ruled out. Analysis of the stove indicated a pooled-hardened aluminum type material across the stove. It appears to have been set in the center of the stove over where there is a Comal burner."

"Although she had denied in our interview they had anything on the stove, after discussions with her and before I left her I asked her if she had made any statement to the police. She said no. Discussion with the officer responsible for CIB Unit OW, stated earlier in the morning sometime around 8am he had discussions with the mother. In their discussions she admitted they had something on."