On Christmas morning, tragedy struck the Badger household in Stamford.
Fire engulfed Madonna Badger’s home, killing her three young daughters, Lilly, 9, and 7-year-old twins, Grace and Sarah, as well as her parents.
She has spoken exclusively to Matt Lauer in an interview that aired in part this morning on the Today Show. More will air tonight on Rock Center and tomorrow on Today.
In tears, Badger recalls the events that turned her life upside down.
Evidence points to the deadly fire starting the "mud room." The likely cause is discarded ashes.
Officials told The Associated Press that the girls wanted the ash out of the fireplace so that Santa Claus could come through the chimney, but Badger told Lauer that she did not know where that story came from.
“I don’t know where that came from,” Badger said.
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The family started the fire in the afternoon, in preparation for Christmas. The last log was put on the fire right before dinner, Badger told Lauer.
Around 3:30 a.m., Borcina cleaned up ashes on the hearth and put them in a brown bag and he put his hands in the bag to make sure nothing was on fire, she recalled.
That bag went on a plastic bin on the mud room. As she was going up the stairs, she saw the plastic box with the bag on top.
“I remember thinking to myself, I should put that outside,” she said, but she remembered watching Borcina put his hands and through thought there was no danger.
She had slept for less than an hour when she woke up choking and realized there was a fire, she said.
She never heard smoke detectors, she said.
She got down on her knees and went out on the porch, where she was faced with a heart-wrenching decision.
“I had to decide, do I go in and save them (her parents) or do I save my children?” she said.
The house was under construction and she ran to save her children, scrambling up the scaffolding to get to Grace’s window.
When she opened it, the smoke hit her. It was the blackest smoke she had seen and was swirling, like an ocean, she said.
“I kept trying to hold my breath and put my head in,” she said.
After three or four times, she could not get in and was screaming for help.
When Borcina got out of the house, his eyes were forced shut from the fire and he was running around, calling for the girls to jump to him, Badger said.
“It was the blackest smoke I have ever seen,” Badger said. “If I had seen them, I would have gone in.”
In the emergency room, three hours would pass before Badger would learn that all three children were gone. Doctors did not know at that time whether Badger’s parents survived, but they said it was not likely, she recalled.
Months after that tragic morning, Badger said she has lingering questions about what happened. One is why the smoke detectors never went off.
The report from the state’s attorney found that hard-wired smoke detectors had been installed but were not working because they had not been connected to the electrical system. Five or six battery-operated smoke detectors had been installed but no one who was in the vicinity of the house during the fire has reported hearing them.
In the interview, Badger told Lauer that the house had wired smoke detectors with batteries and she does not know why they did not go off.
She also wants to know why her house was torn down so quickly.
In his report, the state’s attorney said the house was being renovated and there were other theories as to the cause of the fire, such as an electrical fault where the electric lines enter the house or defective electric or gas meters, but the house was demolished before the State Fire Marshall’s Office or any other expert could make an independent examination and determination.
Badger told Lauer that she recalls going to the front of the house on the morning of the fire and seeing a little bit of flame, but seeing sparks as well.
“I need to know the truth,” she said.
You can watch more on Rock Center tonight and more tomorrow on the Today Show.
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