Anchorage Fire Department
Press Release
5-30-2007
Contact Tom Kempton 267-4999
Fire Department Releases Investigative Findings for Hillside Residential Blaze
The cause of the fire that destroyed a family home at 6401 Ridge Tree Circle in Anchorage on May 12th, 2007 has been investigated and classified as undetermined. Anchorage Fire Department Investigators ruled out all electrical, mechanical, natural and incendiary causes. The fire has been classified as undetermined after investigation with the probable cause being smoking related.
The area of origin of the fire that destroyed the three story single family dwelling with an attached 2 car garage was determined to be the south facing front porch and the item first ignited as a plastic garbage bag with the probable ignition source as a cigarette.
The homeowners, Kevin and Kerri Brady described a sequence of events that led to the loss of their home during interview with Fire Investigators:
Homeowner Kerri Brady stated that she returned home at approx. 8 PM from a local store. At 10:30 she was seated at her desk located between the kitchen and the living room of the main floor working on her computer. She heard glass breaking or popping from the south facing front porch, She immediately traveled the approx. 50 feet to the front door, opened it and looked to her right and observed a small fire measuring 3-4 inches in height coming from one of the two trash bags sitting on top of a two seat bench on the porch. She alerted her husband Kevin who was in the lower level of the home. When she returned to the front door-porch area the fire had grown larger to about 3-4 feet in height. Kevin arrived from downstairs, found an empty cardboard box also on fire on the porch and removed it to the front yard. He stated that he attempted to hook up a garden hose to a hose bib located adjacent to the fire area, his wife Kerri attempted to contact 911 to summon the fire department and got static. Kevin at this point reenters the home through the front door, calls 911 and is connected with operators and reports the fire. Kerri lets the family dogs out the rear patio door and ascends the stairs to the master bedroom located on the third floor and retrieves her sleeping 4 year old daughter. As she descends the stairs she sees the stained glass covering on the dressing room window over the lower porch area starting to melt from direct flame contact from the growing fire below.
About this same time Kevin gives up on connecting the garden hose after receiving burns from the growing fire, he reenters the front door, meets up with his wife Kerri and they exit through the rear patio door and make their way safely to a neighbor’s house with their daughter. Kevin and Kerri stated that they watched the fire quickly progress through the front transom window and into the living room area. The windows crack and break allowing the fire to spread inside the home by the strong easterly wind.
The Anchorage Fire Department arrived on the scene at 10:54 and reported the structure already totally involved with fire through the third story roof. They fought a largely defensive fire that threatened to spread to downwind, forest and homes. Many of the adjoining homes had cedar shake roofs and firefighters began stringing hose in adjacent neighborhoods and extinguishing wind blown embers to keep the fire from spreading.
In subsequent days fire officials inspected the fire scene, sifted through debris and interviewed the witnesses. An accelerant detecting dog from the Anchorage Fire Department alerted to the presence of hydrocarbons in several areas of the exterior porch on the night of the fire and also the next day. These areas were investigated and the materials that burned in the areas were identified as card board boxes and a plastic trash bag filled with polystyrene packing materials in the general area of where the dog had alerted. There was also outdoor furniture that burned and melted in this area, manufactured from HDPE, a hydrocarbon high density polyethylene. These items would account for the dog alerting in those areas.
Kerri Brady stated that she did have one cigarette after returning home the evening of the fire and prior to sitting down at the computer.
She was not sure of the exact time but her best estimate was about two hours prior to the discovery of the fire. Kerri stated that she always smoked on the second step from the top of the porch and only smoked a few drags from each cigarette. She then stubbed the cigarette out on the right riser, entered the home, rinsed the remaining cigarette in the sink and placed the remains in the kitchen trash.
All electrical, mechanical, natural and incendiary causes were excluded. The fire is classified as Undetermined after Investigation with the probable cause being smoking related.