Reptile heating lamp to blame for W. Utica fire that killed 4

UTICA — A reptile heating lamp placed in a fish tank sparked the West Utica house fire that killed a mother and her three children in early May, investigators said Wednesday.

The deadly fire was ruled an accident, officials said nearly one month after intense flames swept across the first floor of 935-937 Schuyler St. on May 9 and spread upstairs to kill Leida Santiago, 32, and her sons – Julius Rolon, 4, Matias Rolon, 2, and Sebastian Rolon, 1.

The fire was found to have started in the first-floor dining room area, where two fish tanks were stacked on a rack, one above the other, city Chief Fire Marshal Raymond Beck said.

Why the heating lamp caught fire, however, still remains a mystery, Beck said.

“You can’t speculate whether the lamp fell into the water or whether it was too close to something or whether it had malfunctioned itself,” Beck said. There also was no indication that the lamp had been tampered with or altered in any way that might have made it a risk.

Because the building was not insured, Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara authorized the funding to analyze the electrical components that were collected from the scene and sent to Forensic & Failure Analysis in Syracuse, Beck said.

Sparked by the lamp, the fire then vented through a first floor window and traveled up the highly-flammable asphalt siding outside the home to the window of a second-floor bedroom, Beck said.

As flames then spread across the first floor to the front of the home, the heat caused the valves on two gas meters to fail and release natural gas into the flames, Beck said. That’s why the front of the residence appeared to be so consumed by flames, he said.

Santiago’s 9-year-old daughter was in school that morning and Santiago’s boyfriend, Matthew Doolen, who also goes by Matthew Rolon, was not home at the time of the fire.

Because Santiago’s three children were too young to understand how to escape a burning building, Beck said there wasn’t really any opportunity to escape the fire once it began to quickly spread.

“There’s nothing to indicate that there’s any fault by any individual,” since a number of electrical problems previously found at the home had since been corrected, Beck said. “Unfortunately, there’s nothing else that could have been done to prevent this.”
www.uticaod.com/breaking/x795260883/Reptile-heating-lamp-to-blame-for-W-Utica-fire-that-killed-4-officials-say

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