What Caused the Fire That Destroyed Two Houses and Partially Damaged Two More in Seine Bight?

While the fire victims are going to need all the help they can get to start over, the big question is what caused the fire that set them back. Today, Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor with the National Fire Service, told the media that the investigation may never determine the exact cause, but electrical faultiness and arson have been ruled out. In fact, Mortis went one step further.

Kenneth Mortis

Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, National Fire Service

“Where the fire started from would represent the larger of all the structures, which was a twenty by twenty wooden (structure). While we know that these buildings didn’t have electricity, we know that the mother of these children, up to this morning, weren’t fully cooperating with neither the police department nor the fire department. They are leaning towards somebody maliciously set fire to these houses. The fire department believes otherwise. We have unconfirmed reports from one of the neighbours and it’s unconfirmed because this is a conversation between two of the kids, whereby this neighbour hear conversation between the two kids that: “Yoh see, yoh set this place on fire.” While I must stress that this conversation came from two children, it’s unfortunate because we cannot take their information credible in the absence of their parents or a social worker. As of this morning, the family members were still being questioned by the police department, which would aid us, the fire department in coming with a concrete final analysis as to how the fire started. If that family isn’t cooperative with either agencies, unfortunately, we would have to rule this fire as an undetermined cause, but we can definitely say it wasn’t electrical, nor was it a malicious act in terms of arson, as what the family members are trying to say. Two structures were completely burned; the remaining three sustained varying heat, fire and water damage of varying degrees. Again, unfortunately for these families, neither of the structures were insured and collectively, you are looking at a loss of anywhere between seventy-five to ninety thousand dollars for structures alone and the contents vary between another hundred thousand dollars. It is a major loss for the families.”