STARKVILLE — The Starkville Fire Department Friday ruled the blaze that killed nine people Dec. 28 at Academy Crossing Apartments was accidental, though investigators still have not determined a cause.
Starkville fire officials believe the fire started in the living room of Apartment E7 and, over the past eight weeks, were able to eliminate “numerous” possible causes, SFD Chief Rodger Mann said Friday afternoon. However, investigators were unable to eliminate an electrical power cord or smoking-related materials from their list of possible causes, he said.
“Unless we are able to come up with some other information, some other lead we”re not aware of today, this is where the Starkville Fire Department is going to have to stand in its investigation,” Mann said. “If something is uncovered in the future, we”d love to investigate it, but for right now, this is where we are.”
“We just beat ourselves up trying to come up with a cause, and we wanted to, but we could not come up with a cause that we felt we had sufficient evidence to prove,” Mann added.
The State Fire Marshal”s Office on Feb. 1 also determined the fire was accidental and ruled out numerous possible causes, “with the exception of smoking-related materials.” Mann, at the time, said he wasn”t ready to release the Fire Department”s theory on the blaze.
At the Starkville Board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday night, Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins questioned Mann about why the investigation has taken so long. Mann promised to meet with City Attorney Chris Latimer and release the Fire Department”s theory on the cause by the end of the week. He spent Friday afternoon calling and e-mailing aldermen with the fire department”s ruling.
Fire broke out in Apartment E7 around 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 28 while three women and six children slept inside. All nine perished.
Killed in the blaze were 25-year-old India Williams and her three children, Jacorian Vasser, 6, Richard Vasser Jr., 5, and Kamarion Williams, 2; Castella Maria Bell, 18, and her three children, Ta”Nayia Bell, 4, Jayvion Bell, 3, and Sumaya Bell, 6 months; and Lakesha Gillespie, 20.
Bell and her children recently had fallen on hard times and moved in with Williams and Gillespie, who shared the apartment, neighbors said.
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