On June 21, 2001 a fire in a single-family detached dwelling resulted in the death of six occupants, five of whom were children ranging in age from twenty-two months to seven years old. The fire was reported at approximately 2:00 a.m. and everyone was reported to have been asleep at the time that the fire was discovered. According to the sole surviving resident, there was no operational smoke detector in the home. As a result, the fire reached sufficient intensity as to make the rescue of the victims impossible. By the time firefighters arrived, the structure was heavily involved and fire had broken through the doors and windows and was threatening nearby exposures.

Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze and were left with the grim task of searching for and recovering the bodies of the six victims: a twenty-four year old female, her twenty-two month old baby girl; the five-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter of her housemate; and the six-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter of her housemate’s sister.

Investigators determined that a battery charger had been left plugged into an electrical outlet on the enclosed front porch of the dwelling and had caused the fire. The battery charger was not in use at the time of the fire, but had been covered by clothes and apparently overheated, igniting the blaze.