CT - Five die in Stamford Christmas Day fire 2011.12.25

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TGIRecovered said:
This is no ordinary house. It is a 3 story Victorian overlooking Long Island Sound. Records show that Mrs. Badger paid $1.725 million for it in December of 2010. She is also in the process of divorcing her husband.

If you haven't clicked on the NYT link yet, take a look. There is a very good picture...the fire was catastrophic. I can't imagine anyone living in a wood home of such value without an excellent fire detection system and a plan of action to get everyone out in case of fire, even if they had to go out the window!

I would have thought that any mother of small children would have been screaming about her kids and her parents being trapped inside the burning house. The quote, " My whole life is in there!", seems a bit materialistic to me, but maybe she was referring to her family as "her life".

I will be interested to see how this one turns out...could be an angry soon-to-be-ex, financial problems, property disputes or custody issues on the part of either the husband or the wife. I hope it really is just a tragic accident! :twocents:
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Thanks for breaking the ice on some skepticism this one. When it is a tragedy such as this, no one wants to be the first to say it may not be as it appears. I wonder how the flames spread so rapidly- that suggests a propellant. The mother's reference to 'everything I have is in there' was odd, but under the circumstances perhaps understandable. Was there a relationship between her and the man who was remodelling- past that of employer and client? This one needs a good going over and it will almost certainly get it from the arson investigtors and also from the PD. May God bless the victims.

PS- Isn't Stamford where Martha Moxley was murdered in 1975? I hope their PD has improved some since then.
 
Looking at the photos, the top floor seems to be where the fire started considering it's totally charred and destroyed compared to the bottom floor. What could have started it? It would be interesting to see a layout of the house. Were the bedrooms upstairs? Anything else on the second floor? A den with a fireplace, perhaps?

AP111225016117_620x350.jpg
 
I'm sure that we have some firefighters or their family who are websleuths members. If you can answer questions about fire investigations or if you have any observations to share, please jump in on the conversation!

Do firefighters usually have a pretty good idea what started a fire based upon the way the fire progresses?

Is it unusual for such a valuable home to be without sprinkler system or working smoke detectors? ( I don't know if this home had any or not, but if it did I would expect that more family members would have been saved.)

Can you tell us anything about the fire based upon the pictures posted in the Daily Mail article? http://tinyurl.com/8yqlvwh


I would expect and older home to be more susceptible to fire dangers, but the fact that this home was so valuable and had been in the remodeling process for a while makes me wonder. This is not a case of a long-time homeowner being unable to afford upgrading to fire-resistant building materials or the best fire alarm system.

The fact that the only two survivors were relatively un-injured and one of them was the building contractor makes me very suspicious! What the heck was he doing there on Christmas morning? How many intelligent, well-educated, wealthy mothers would be okay with their building contractor sleeping over when Grandma and Granpa come to visit? Don't even get me started about the three little girls in a home with a grown man who is not their daddy.

I wonder if the contractor had his mind on something other than his work and got a little bit careless with flammable materials or electrical wiring. I also wonder if he was afraid he might not get paid on time, what with the divorce and all.
 
~n/t~ said:
Looking at the photos, the top floor seems to be where the fire started considering it's totally charred and destroyed compared to the bottom floor. What could have started it? It would be interesting to see a layout of the house. Were the bedrooms upstairs? Anything else on the second floor? A den with a fireplace, perhaps?

AP111225016117_620x350.jpg
Click to expand...

I am no fire expert, but I thought that a fire would burn upward very quickly as long as there was something to burn, then spread horizontally in the direction of the wind when there was no longer anything above it to burn. In my mind, that would explain the top floor being completely devastated while the ground floor appears to be only partially consumed.
MOO
 
It makes me wonder if there were cans of varnish and other "renovation" chemicals that fed this conflagration? Probably a lot of wood flooring being restored...

I just can't imagine the pain of surviving this-- the horrible, terrible, pain of such a stupefying loss. :cry:
 
Fire on Christmas Morning Kills Family of Ad Exec in Conn
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlin...tmas-morning-kills-family-of-ad-exec-in-conn/

"The cause of the fire is under investigation. The damage is so extensive that it’s not safe for investigators to enter."

“It will be a number of days before we actually find out how this occurred and what happened,” said Stamford Fire Chief Antonio Conte."
 
Dewey2Me1MoThyme said:
So very sad, and yet typical. Seems every Christmas we hear of a house fire.
Overloaded outlets, presents too close to a heat source, old christmas lighting with fagil cords. People really need to be educated on what to look for, and how to avoid such things. Our prayers go out to the families.
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Also-candles. People use candles. Open flame next to flammable materials-not a good idea. My neighbor's house burned because of a candle. They all got out, however.
 
Ms. Badger’s three children were Lily, 9, and Grace and Sarah, 7-year-old twins.

Mr. Johnson, 71, spent his last day working at his dream job: as Santa Claus
on the ninth floor of the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store in Manhattan, the family member said. He was known for his real long, white beard.

“That’s all he ever wanted to be,” the family member said. “He stopped shaving the day he retired.”

Mr. Johnson had spent decades as safety director for the Brown-Forman Corporation, the parent company of Jack Daniels, working on, among other things, fire code for distilleries, according to the family member.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

“It did not appear that the renovations were part of the cause; they might have been part of the spread,” Timothy Conroy, deputy fire chief, said in a telephone interview, adding that the cause was under investigation.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ms. Badger had initiated divorce proceedings with her husband, Matthew, but they had an amicable relationship, the relative said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/nyregion/house-fire-kills-5-in-stamford.html?_r=1
 
norest4thewicked said:
I just heard on TV news that the male who survived the fire with her was an "acquaintance" of Mrs. Badger.
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That has been known for a while now. He is a president of a construction company.
"Madonna Badger, a prominent New York City advertising executive who bought the home last year for $1.7 million, escaped the blaze along with Michael Borcina, a friend and contractor who had been renovating the home."
http://www.chron.com/local/article/3-girls-2-adults-die-in-Stamford-Christmas-blaze-2425313.php
 
The contractor has a fb with pictures and comments that suggest he and Badger were more than friends. However, that really doesn't change the tragedy of the story. So sad.
 
An old home being renovated may not have had proper fire detection equipment or a sprinkler system. Just speculation, however it may have had an upstairs fireplace or something else including worn electrical wiring that caused most of the damage to that part of the dwelling, causing anyone up there to be trapped. It appears to be somewhat indicative of a fast moving fire or combustion from some type of accelerent rather than a smoldering cigarette, for example. Hopefully investigators can determine which room it started in, and what the cause was.

:(

MOO
 
lucky181 said:
The contractor has a fb with pictures and comments that suggest he and Badger were more than friends. However, that really doesn't change the tragedy of the story. So sad.
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I don't know of many contractors doing renovation work at 5 am on Christmas morning. But it appears she has been separated from her husband for years. I bet the mother and the contractor were sleeping downstairs while the children and grandparents were sleeping upstairs and that's why the two of them made it out, and the children and grandparents haven't. Fire spreads "up."
 
panthera said:
An old home being renovated may not have had proper fire detection equipment or a sprinkler system. Just speculation, however it may have had an upstairs fireplace or something else including worn electrical wiring that caused most of the damage to that part of the dwelling, causing anyone up there to be trapped. It appears to be somewhat indicative of a fast moving fire or combustion from some type of accelerent rather than a smoldering cigarette, for example. Hopefully investigators can determine which room it started in, and what the cause was.

:(

MOO
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I have never seen a private home having a sprinkler system. Now, maybe rich people normally have sprinkler systems. I don't know. I just never seen a private home with a sprinkler system. Since this was an old home I really doubt it had a sprinkler system. It might have had a fire alarm. But having a fire alarm doesn't guarantee one will get out in case of a fire. Fire spreads fast.
 
jjenny said:
I have never seen a private home having a sprinkler system. Now, maybe rich people normally have sprinkler systems. I don't know. I just never seen a private home with a sprinkler system. Since this was an old home I really doubt it had a sprinkler system. It might have had a fire alarm. But having a fire alarm doesn't guarantee one will get out in case of a fire. Fire spreads fast.
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Agree. Hard to know now, however. What I am most curious about is the demolition being accomplished so quickly after the fire. Wouldn't most fires causing five deaths be investigated more thoroughly before the structure is completely demolished?

:waitasec:
 
norest4thewicked said:
I believe that fires involving deaths must be investigated.
Click to expand...

Besides the structure being completely unsafe to remain standing, the only other explanation I can think of at this point for the immediate demolition is something in the charred remains being discovered as the cause of the fire.

MOO
 
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