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Investigators have ruled a Sunday fire that killed two children an accident.
Austin and Justin Reed were found dead in the bedroom of their home on Majestic Way, Syracuse, Sunday morning after the house was destroyed by fire.
Police said today that the cause of the fire has been ruled accidental and believe that Austin, 3, may have started the blaze by playing with a lighter.
The investigators first said the cause of the fire was "suspicious" because of unusual burn patterns in the manufactured home, Kosciusko County Sheriff Al Rovenstine said.
But analysis reports from two Fort Wayne labs determined there was no accelerant used to start or spread the fire.
Investigators found a lighter in the living room area of the house, where police say the blaze began, Rovenstine said. The two boys were found in their beds in the opposite end of the home.
David Reed, 25, the father of the two boys, was asleep at the time of the fire. The mother, Faith Ferguson, 21, told police she and the two boys got up at 8 a.m and she fed them breakfast. She left the home around 9:30 a.m., leaving the children in their bedroom.
Reed reported he was awakened less than an hour later by coughing from the heavy smoke that filled the house. He told police he ran in and out of the house looking for his children as he yelled for help.
A young man fishing in a channel near the home heard his cries for help and ran to the house. As another fisherman telephoned for help, the first man made several attempts with David to get into the house to find the children.
David then ran across the street to his grandparents' house to call 911 again.
Police were told that Austin had a history of playing with lighters, and had been caught with a lighter at his grandparents' house as recently as the night before the fire. Rovenstine said investigators continued to keep the information as a possibility.
"Because of the structure of the home and the steel roof, it caused a burn pattern we don't see all the time," Rovenstine said. He described the difference in burn patterns between a wood roof and steel.
Rovenstine said that a fire in a wood house would go straight up. If the roof is steel, the fire would go up, and then roll back down toward the floor before going up again.
"It was a concern," Rovenstine said. "We saw things we don't normally see." He said that areas the investigators first suspected as hot spots set by accelerants were most likely caused by the burn-and-roll pattern. Materials from the alleged hot spots were analyzed at the labs and found to contain no accelerant.
"The two labs were a great help," Rovenstine said. "The labs helped because they see more of (unusual burn patterns)."
Rovenstine also complimented members of the Syracuse Fire Department and Squad 70. "They worked long hours and did an excellent job," Rovenstine said of their investigation.
