Fire investigators are reportedly focusing on the ashes of a Yule log as the cause of the fire that killed five people in Stamford Christmas morning.
Embers from the log may have been placed in a bucket as Madonna Badger and her boyfriend, Michael Borcina went to bed, according to the New York Daily News. A short time later, the house was engulfed in flames, killing Badger's three children, Lily, 10, and 7-year-old twins, Grace and Sarah and her parents, Lomer and Pauline Johnson, who were visiting for the holiday from Southbury.
Badger and Borcina both escaped the flames.
Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia said Tuesday that foul play had been ruled out and that the blaze was "fireplace-related." He did not elaborate.
Pavia scheduled a news conference for 4 p.m. Tuesday to discuss the tragedy and the investigation into the blaze.
Neighbors called 911 around 5 a.m. Sunday to report the fire at 2267 Shippan Avenue.
"There is a huge fire at the house right next to us," one caller said. "The whole house is on fire," she said.
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Badger, an advertising executive who just moved into the home a year ago, had to be pulled from the roof after desperately trying to rescue her three girls.
"She was instructing where she thought the children would be. Firefighters tried to get them, but they were pushed back by heavy smoke and flames," Fire Capt. Bill Avalos said.
Badger's father, Lomer Johnson, was found dead on the roof. He had apparently tried to reach the window of one of his granddaughters before collapsing, just on the other side of the window from the young girl.
"He died on the outside, and she died on the inside," Stamford Fire Chief Antonio Conte said. "She was right next to him."
Lomer, 71, worked as a Santa at the flagship Saks Fifth Avenue store in New York City on Christmas Eve, just hours before the fire.
"Mr. Johnson was Saks Fifth Avenue's beloved Santa, and we are heartbroken about this terrible tragedy," spokeswoman Julia Bently said.
Fire investigators also hinted that there were no working smoke detectors in the house. The home was being renovated at the time of the fire.
"Please make sure you have working smoke detectors in your house and an escape plan. Go over an escape route," Avalos said.
A contractor who had been painting the house for the past few months, said he is shaken by the tragedy.
"It's hard to believe," Auralio Naranjo said. "We were supposed to work on Tuesday, today. We were supposed to work there. We were painting, and they were very happy for their house for the holiday.
Naranjo said he saw the family almost every day.
"It's horrible. I saw the little girls there doing homework sometimes, you know, when they come home from school. They were very nice. Nice girls, nice people," he said.
