While fire officials continue to investigate the cause of Friday night’s fire on Fifth Street, the office of the chief medical examiner has finished its autopsy on the man who died in the blaze.
Rufus McMichael died of smoke inhalation, according to results from an autopsy preformed Sunday.
McMichael, 84, was in the home with his wife, Laura, 81, when the fire broke out.
Laura McMichael, who is wheelchair bound, was rescued from the fire and remains listed in critical condition in the burn unit at Bridgeport Hospital.
State fire officials have not yet said what caused the fire, which spread quickly and may have been helped along by one of the oxygen tanks used by one of the McMichaels. (To read a full account of the fire, and see video and pictures from the scene, click here.)
Ansonia Fire Marshal Ray Tingley said the fire appears to have started in the back corner of the house on the first floor. His office is still investigating and working with the state fire officials to determine the cause, something that could take weeks, Tingley said.
“Right now it doesn’t appear to have been anything other than an accidental cause,” Tingley said. “But the investigation is still open.”
The home Monday was still surrounded by yellow police tape.
Debris from the fire — glass, roof shingles, burnt pieces of wood — littered the sidewalk Monday on Star Street, the side road to the right of the McMichael’s home. The building still smelled of smoke and ash.
Meanwhile, neighbors and friends are mourning the man described as “a neighborhood papa.”
“He was just a very nice guy,” said Debra Butler, who drove by the charred remnants of the home Monday morning.
Butler said McMichael was a church-going man, who cared deeply for his wife, Laura.
Neighbors held a candlelight vigil for Rufus McMichael on Saturday night, Butler said, and the memorial remained on the tree in front of the house Monday morning.
A sign posted to the tree displayed a picture of Rufus McMichael hugging an apparent family member.
A message to McMichael was handwritten on the photo:
“Papa — you’ll always be with us. You will be missed dearly. We love you.”