Cause of fatal fire may never be known
Santa Claus — Authorities are still investigating the fire responsible for the death of a well-liked Santa Claus resident.
According to the Spencer County Coroner Robert Fuller, investigators may never know exactly what started the fire that injured Maureen Gregory and killed her husband Brian last Friday morning.
“There was so much damage. They may never be able to determine where it originated,” Fuller said. “We know he [Brian] had two coffee makers going that morning. One was espresso that he makes and the other one was regular coffee. We know he was awake and he made coffee, that was in the autopsy. We knew about what had been going on that morning.”
Investigators suspect the fire may have been from an electrical in nature and likely started in the kitchen. The kitchen was extensively damaged in the fire that engulfed the home. “If you look at the kitchen and the kitchen is extensively damaged and burnt through the ceiling and out the roof,” Fuller said, “you think it started in the kitchen.”
An insurance investigator was at the residence located at 911 S. Snowball Lane today. The investigator noted that the burn damages were visible in the rafters and the tops of the wall studs; not at the bottom of the studs and floor. For investigators this indicates the fire did not start on the floor as previously thought.
This opinion differs from statements made by Maureen Gregory to fire fighters Friday morning after she was rescued from the engulfed home. She stated the fire started from when she dropped cigarette.
“When she [Maureen] exited the building, the door was open and there were no flames in there,” Fuller reported today. “If this had been a cigarette that had ignited while she was smoking, she would have been burned. And she was not, other than superficial burns to her face.”
Cigarettes are mandated to be designed to automatically extinguish themselves rather than smoldering. “It takes about 4 hours for a cigarette to smolder enough to start a fire,” Fuller said. “That’s what they used to do, but today they don’t smolder and everything in a home is fire-retardant.”
A microwave in the kitchen also presented fire damage on its interior but according to Fuller, this doesn’t mean the fire started there. “It could have been from a previous fire.”
According to Santa Claus Fire Chief Max Meyer, the fire spread very quickly and when firefighters arrived at the residence that Friday morning, they found it completely engulfed in flames.
The investigation is still ongoing as authorities wait on toxicology results but, “as far as a source it looks to me like that is pretty much where we are at now,” Fuller said. “But you never know what might turn up.”
Maureen Gregory remains in a stable condition at a Louisville hospital.
The Fire Marshall’s Office is ruling the fire as accidental.
