Extensive damage is preventing the Derby fire marshal from issuing a cause in Sunday’s fatal fire on Derby Avenue.
The fire started on an outside deck in the rear of the apartment house at 204 – 206 Derby Ave.
“We couldn’t determine the cause of the fire. We know it started somewhere on the upper-level deck on the outside of the building,” Hawks said.
The fire claimed the life of Nilda Ruiz, 48, who lived on the second floor, in the area where the fire started. Her body was found in a living room.
An autopsy was scheduled for Monday. The cause of Ruiz’s death was smoke inhalation.
The manner of death, a classification that helps guide the police probe, is pending upon further investigation.
The fire displaced about 20 residents.
Hawks said Monday the fire is “undetermined” at this point.
Detectives from the state police Fire and Explosion Investigative Unit (formerly known as the state Fire Marshal’s office) are also investigating.
Trooper Kelly Grant, the state police spokesperson, said in an email Monday morning there was no new information to report.
Derby police noted the house was released back to the owner Monday afternoon, meaning it is no longer a crime scene.
The house in uninhabitable. The Red Cross was helping the families with temporary living arrangements.
In terms of the cause, the fire burned away the deck’s flooring, eliminating the fire marshal’s ability to inspect it.
“What actually started it, we’re probably not going to know,” Hawks said. “A lot of the flooring isn’t there, so we can’t get onto that deck itself.”
There was a grill on the deck, but nothing points to the grill as the origin of the fire, Hawks said.
“It was there, along with other stuff that people put on their decks. But we can’t say ‘yeah, it was a grill,’ just because there was one there,” Hawks said.
The building had working smoke detectors. In fact, the fire marshal’s office inspected the building within the last two months.
The owner was told to replace batteries in some of the detectors, and complied, the marshal said.
The fire was reported about 7 a.m. Sunday. The scene at first was chaotic, even for a large fire on a densely-populated street.
There was a car crash at roughly the same time as the fire, as a Pontiac driving east on Derby Avenue hit a parked car and came to rest outside the burning building.
Residents Sunday wondered whether the crash had something to do with the fire.
Two residents interviewed by the Valley Indy Sunday said they heard an explosion. A third said he heard a loud noise, but attributed it to the impact from the crash directly outside the house.
“There are rumors all over the place,” Hawks said. “The investigation is still open and (state police) major crimes is still doing their end of it.”
The fire marshal said there was no evidence of an explosion, such as debris scattered around the property.
“There was that car accident in the front. That was probably the bang they heard at the beginning,” Hawks said. “It just so happened the time of people’s smoke detectors starting to go off. Then people started banging on the door screaming for people to get out.”
Derby police confirmed Monday the car wreck was merely a motorist who spotted the smoke and accidentally hit a parked car.
It’s not clear whether Ruiz was the only person in her apartment at the time of the fire. A male companion may have been there at some point, Hawks said. Police are interviewing the man.
Clothes to donate to one of the displaced families were being collected at Derby High School (8 Nutmeg Ave.) Monday, according to a Tweet from schools Superintendent Matthew Conway.
Derby Family displaced by fire in need of clothing for 2 boys sizes 10 – 11 pants/shirts and shoes sizes 1 – 1/2 and 2. Drop off at HS Monday AM
— Matt Conway (@derbypssuper) August 23, 2015Donations were still being accepted as of noon Monday, when members from the Derby Storm Ambulance and Rescue Corps dropped off donations.
The Valley Indy is aware of one Go Fund Me website set up for an individual family.
