STAMFORD, Conn. — A Christmas-morning fire that killed a couple and three of their grandchildren was accidentally started by fireplace embers that had been discarded near a first-floor entryway, officials said Tuesday.
The officials also said it wasn’t clear if the home had working smoke detectors.
A friend staying in the home put ashes in a bag in or near a mudroom at the rear of the house, said Barry Callahan, Stamford’s fire marshal. The fire was reported just after 4:40 a.m.
Stamford acting Fire Chief Antonio Conte said the children’s mother, Madonna Badger, had climbed out a window onto a flat roof. She was screaming for her children.
The friend of Badger’s who had been staying in the home told investigators he led two of the girls downstairs, but heat from the flames separated them, Conte said. One apparently went back upstairs, and another one was found with her grandmother at the bottom of a stairwell between the second and third floors, he said.
It appeared Badger’s father had tried to help one of the girls get out but fell through the roof outside her window and died, officials said.
The Associated Press
