INVESTIGATORS are looking into the possibility that a 5-year-old sparked a deadly Philadelphia fire that killed 12 people, according to a warrant.
The fire in a Philly row house may have been sparked by the child playing with a lighter near a Christmas tree, the warrant said.
The information was revealed in a search warrant on Thursday as city and federal officials attempt to determine what caused the deadly blaze.
The fire took the lives of two sisters, several of their children, and others early Wednesday morning.
It was the deadliest single blaze in the city in more than a century.
Fire officials have not provided much information about the cause of the blaze yet.
Matthew Varisco, who leads Philly’s branch of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), said that more specific details about the cause of the blaze will be available soon.
“I know that we will hopefully be able to provide a specific origin and cause to this fire and to provide some answers to the loved ones and, really, to the city,” he said.
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ATF specialists and other investigators took photos and combed through the charred, three-story brick duplex on Thursday.
The building is owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, the city’s public housing agency and the state’s biggest landlord.
The city housing authority’s president, Kelvin Jeremiah, said that 14 people, 10 of whom were children, were authorized to live in the four-bedroom upstairs apartment where the fire broke out.
Six people were authorized to live in the lower unit, he said.
The fire department previously said that none of the four smoke alarms in the building appeared to be functional, according to the Associated Press.
However, housing authority officials said that the detectors were working during an inspection in May of 2021.
