Fire Marshal’s investigative report reveals April blaze started outside home, underneath porch
Investigators were unable to determine the cause of an April 16 house fire in Delta that claimed the lives of three people, according to a Utah State Fire Marshal’s report released last week to the Chronicle Progress.
A number of possible causes for the blaze at 35 W 300 S were noted in the 12-page report. Investigators found no evidence of suspicious or criminal activity behind the incident.
Two victims in the fire died of smoke inhalation, the report states, and one suffered fatal burns.
One person died in the basement of the home. Another was found in the kitchen near the home’s back door. A third victim was located in a bed inside the living room.
Two people were able to escape the home, a mother and a son who guided her out to safety as flames quickly consumed one end of the structure.
A Millard County Sheriff’s deputy was the first emergency responder on scene at about 4:22 p.m. The report states the deputy attempted to make entry into the home using the front door. Flames prevented him from making entrance. Responding to witnesses at the scene saying someone might be in the basement, the deputy began breaking windows in an effort to locate any victims.
Delta volunteer firefighters arrived on scene about two minutes after the deputy. Later they reported to Fire Marshal’s investigators that “heavy fire conditions” seemed to emanated from the structure’s east side, burning through the home’s interior from there.
Fire investigators were able to get to the scene even as firefighters were still extinguishing hot spots from the blaze.
The official report notes some of the conditions surrounding the blaze, including heavy winds reported in the area at the time as well as a power outage shortly before the fire was reported.
One witness, a neighbor who lives just behind the home, told investigators they saw a downed power line sparking when they went outside after the fire started, the report states. The power line was connected to a mainline located on the property’s east side, which is also the side of the home where investigators suspect the blaze started.
One of the fire’s survivors, a woman named Linda Smith, told investigators that the power went out for about 10 minutes. When it came back on, her television needed to be reset. About that time, her son, Michael Glenn Smith, arrived home from work. He helped his mother reset the television then walked to a door located on the home’s east side.
“She watched him open the door and she saw fire,” the report states. “She described the flames to be large and moving in the house. She stated within second(s) the thick black smoke came down the hallway and into the family room, making it impossible for her to see anything.”
The report further describes the woman saying she eventually became disoriented as she attempted to flee.
“At some point her son, Michael Glenn grabbed her and helped her to get out of the house,” the report notes.
Asked later how long between her son arriving and the start of the fire, the woman said she estimated about five minutes.
Michael Glenn told investigators he recalled opening the east side door and noticing the door knob was warm. When he was met with flames, he said he quickly grabbed a fire extinguisher, “but it had no effect on the fire.”
He said he fled the home before realizing his mother had not made it out and so he went back for her. He attempted to return and help others inside but when he did the smoke was too thick.
During a second interview with investigators, Michael Glenn said he recalled arriving home, putting some items up in a camp trailer located in the yard of the home and then walking to the house. When he began working to reset the television in the family room, he said he heard a “loud pop.” First he almost went into the basement to see if his girlfriend, Patty Warren, who later died in the fire, needed some help with something. But another commotion or series of sounds caught his attention and he opened the east side door to see what was happening. He was met with flames and his hands were “instantly burned.”
The report describes an exhaustive search for the source of the fire by investigators, which included using a K-9 in attempt to locate a starting point.
The east side exterior wall of the home was completely burned through, the report notes. A bedroom on the southeast side had extensive damage as well, including its roof collapsing. Charring and heat damage throughout the house showed the fire spread east to west. A stairwell leading to the basement suffered “significant heat and fire damage.”
Of particular note to investigators was a small wooden porch and wheelchair ramp on the home’s east side.
Investigators asked if the porch was ever used by the home’s occupants for smoking cigarettes. It had been. A glass ashtray and black pot were said to be used on the porch to discard cigarette butts. The ashtray was found in the debris, not the pot.
Asked when the last time someone smoked on the porch, Michael Glenn told investigators he lit a cigarette there in the early morning hours before work. He was unable to say whether he finished the cigarette there or not.
When it came to the best hunch as to where the fire started, they reported it most likely started outside, underneath the porch.
But as far as what ignited first, a definitive answer was not found.
“It is unclear at this time what the first fuel ignited was. It is not known with clear and convincing certainty what the ignition source was,” the report states.
