REDMOND, Wash.—The state crime lab on Monday began processing evidence from a fatal Redmond apartment fire that left a father and his four sons dead and a mother recovering in a hospital.
Police and fire investigators finished collecting evidence at the scene of the New Year’s Day fire in the Seattle suburb, Redmond police spokesman Greg Twentey said.
“We’re waiting for forensic evidence from the lab,” Twentey said. “Some of the forensic tests take a long time.”
Investigators also continued to interview neighbors while trying to determine the cause of the fire that started in a first-floor apartment of a three-story wood-framed building in a complex in a wooded area just northwest of downtown Redmond.
Chandra Kroeckel of Colorado Springs, Colo., identified the oldest boy killed in the fire as her biological son, 12-year-old Tristan Thompson, The Seattle Times reported. She said the other boys were born to David Thompson and his wife, Lilly Reasor, both in their early 30s.
David Thompson died in the blaze. Reasor was in stable condition at Evergreen Hospital Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Sherry Grindeland said.
Kroeckel said the three other young victims were 6-year-old David, 4-year-old Leviticus and 2-year-old Wyatt.
“A lot of wonderful lives were taken out of this world,” she told the newspaper.
No other injuries were reported among the residents of the other 11 apartments in the building who have been relocated to temporary housing.
Crews responded from six fire departments to fight the flames. Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Washington State Patrol and a Seattle Fire Department canine arson detection unit were at the scene, though there were no immediate signs it was intentionally set, Redmond police spokesman Matt Peringer said.
The fire was reported around 2:30 a.m. Saturday at the Sammamish Ridge Apartments and quickly burned the two units above it. All three were heavily damaged.
The buildings have smoke detectors but not sprinklers, which weren’t required when the complex was built in the mid-1980s, Peringer said.
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Story includes material from KOMO-TV.
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Information from: The Seattle Times,
