Warrant: 5-year-old might have started deadly Philly blaze

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Investigators are looking into the possibility that a 5-year-old child who was playing with a lighter set a Christmas tree on fire, sparking a conflagration that killed 12 people in a Philadelphia rowhome, officials revealed Thursday.

The revelation was included in a search warrant application as city and federal investigators sought to determine the cause of the city’s deadliest single blaze in more than a century, which took the lives of two sisters, several of their children and others early Wednesday.

Jane Roh, spokesperson for District Attorney Larry Krasner, confirmed the contents of the search warrant, which was first reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Fire officials provided few details at an afternoon news briefing, declining to say how many people escaped the blaze or speculate on a possible cause, adding the fire scene was complex. Officials also did not say where the fire began, calling it part of the investigation.

“I know that we will hopefully be able to provide a specific origin and cause to this fire and to provide some answers to the loved ones and, really, to the city,” said Matthew Varisco, who leads the Philadelphia branch of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF specialists and other investigators took photos and combed through the charred, three-story brick duplex.

The building is owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, the city’s public housing agency and the state’s biggest landlord.

Fourteen people were authorized to live in the four-bedroom upper apartment that “suffered the tragedy,” according to Kelvin Jeremiah, the housing authority’s president and CEO, while six people were on the lease in the lower unit.

When the family upstairs became tenants in 2011, there were six people — a grandmother, her three daughters and two of their children, Jeremiah said. He said the family grew over the next decade to add another eight children.

PHA “does not evict people because they have children,” Jeremiah said.