Sioux Falls Fire investigators say the cause of the fire which claimed the life of three children in December remains undetermined. The investigation into the fire was unable to validate any one specific cause.
Officials believe an area of the living room where a lamp, table and chair sat to be where the fire originated. However extensive damage to the area destroyed evidence which could have identified the cause. Sioux Falls Fire Marshall Dean Lanier says concluding the cause as undetermined is not unusual in cases with severe damage.
“If fires burn for quite a while the items that area in the room of origin many time are just consumed by the fire itself, so we don’t have a lot of physical evidence to be able to say exactly what the cause is. We can go back and look at the electrical system, we can go back and look at what appliances were in that room, lamps as was mentioned before, but in this case with the lack of physical evidence being there, there is no other way for us to come to a determination other than say that it was undetermined,” said Lanier.
Lanier says the lack of evidence makes it impossible to even speculate what the actual cause was. A review of the house last fall noted there were fire alarms in the residence however Lanier said there is not a way to know what was working during the time of the fire.