While investigators believe they know where a fast-moving fire that leveled a half-block of stores and apartments Monday began, what caused it is still a mystery, Shelton’s Fire Marshal said Friday afternoon.
“More likely than not we won’t be able to determine an exact cause,” James Tortora, the fire marshal, said.
Tortora, members of his staff, and officials with the state fire marshal’s office have been sifting through the rubble of the blaze since Tuesday.
By evaluating the pattern of damage wrought by the flames, along with accounts from witnesses and firefighters, he said they believe the fire started in the building’s basement, specifically between the area of Howe Convenient and the adjacent Dollar Chest store.
“Unfortunately this building was four stories and they collapsed upon themselves,” Tortora said. “That didn’t make matters any easier.”
It is not uncommon for an official cause of a fire to be labeled “undetermined” if the damage is extensive.
He said the property was turned over Friday to its owner, Ralph Matto, a local builder.
Matto said Tuesday he wasn’t sure what his plans for the property are.
Article continues after the photo gallery:
The Fire
Firefighters were dispatched to the building about 11:42 p.m. Sunday on a report of a smoke detector sounding, according to radio transmissions.
They arrived to find the building’s first-floor businesses flooded.
Tortora said they found a broken sprinkler pipe around midnight, and shut the sprinkler system off to stop the flow of water — a routine step in a water flow emergency.
They then cleared some drains behind the building to help better disperse the water that had leaked to that point.
Tortora said firefighters then went to check the building again before leaving and discovered smoke inside.
Turning the sprinklers back on wasn’t an option.
“The fire spread so fast they could not get back downstairs to put the sprinkler back on,” he said. “By that time it was already in the walls.”
The video below from FiregroundImages.com shows a drone flying over the wreckage.
Getting everybody out of the building became firefighters’ first priority at that point, he said. The blaze left 28 people homeless. No one was seriously injured.
“Luckily the fire department was there at that time,” he said. “Had they not been, I hate to think of what the outcome would have been.”
The fire marshal said burst water pipes are a common winter-time call for fire departments.
“We won’t get these calls when it’s frozen outside, we’ll get them when it starts warming up,” he said. “The water warms up and expands in the pipes.”
That seems to be exactly what happened Sunday night, he said.
But it’s impossible to say whether the burst pipe then somehow prompted the fire.
“We can only speculate, we can’t determine that at this time,” Tortora said.
Aid Effort Continues
In the days since, firefighters from Echo Hose Hook & Ladder Co. 1 have been collecting donations and helping the displaced tenants find new living arrangements.
They asked anyone who knows of housing leads to fill out this form on their website.
TEAM Inc. also announced Friday that it is seeking furniture donations for the displaced tenants.
Click here for a previous story on the effort.
Up-to-date information can be found on the Echo Hose Facebook and Twitter pages and its website
