scwirenut
Senior Member
- Location
- Sumter, South Carolina
By DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press 12/19/2006
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Hours before a deadly fire at a group home, a maintenance man intentionally short-circuited some wiring to cut off power while he worked on the furnace, investigators said in a report issued Tuesday.
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The report by the state fire marshal's office did not pinpoint the cause of the Nov. 27 fire that killed 10 people at the home for the mentally ill and disabled. But it listed an electrical short or overload in "makeshift" wiring in the attic as a possible cause.
In the report, released to The Associated Press under an open-records law request, investigators said they found no evidence of arson, and they called the investigation non-criminal.
The maintenance man, David Forrester, told an investigator he used pliers to stick a wire into an outlet in order to trip the circuit breaker and cut off the power while he worked on the furnace Nov. 26. The wiring ran through the attic.
A short-circuit can cause wires to overheat and start a fire.
Deputy State Fire Marshal Bill Zieres said the attic contained blown cellulose insulation ? essentially finely shredded paper ? that probably smoldered for several hours before anyone noticed.
A worker wanting to temporarily cut off power to part of a home would ordinarily flip a circuit breaker manually, then reset it later. But Forrester said he did not know which circuit breaker in the electrical box led to the furnace.
Asked by the investigator why he didn't simply unplug the furnace, he said: "I don't know, didn't even think about it."
Reached by telephone, Misty Forrester told the AP that her husband had no comment. An employee at River of Life Ministries, the home's operators, also said no one had any comment.
Last week, the state of Missouri sued the operator, claiming the home had been secretly, illegally run by Robert DuPont, who was previously convicted in a Medicare and Medicaid fraud scheme. State regulators also stripped the licenses of all four River of Life homes and ordered them closed by Jan. 5.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Hours before a deadly fire at a group home, a maintenance man intentionally short-circuited some wiring to cut off power while he worked on the furnace, investigators said in a report issued Tuesday.
ADVERTISEMENT
The report by the state fire marshal's office did not pinpoint the cause of the Nov. 27 fire that killed 10 people at the home for the mentally ill and disabled. But it listed an electrical short or overload in "makeshift" wiring in the attic as a possible cause.
In the report, released to The Associated Press under an open-records law request, investigators said they found no evidence of arson, and they called the investigation non-criminal.
The maintenance man, David Forrester, told an investigator he used pliers to stick a wire into an outlet in order to trip the circuit breaker and cut off the power while he worked on the furnace Nov. 26. The wiring ran through the attic.
A short-circuit can cause wires to overheat and start a fire.
Deputy State Fire Marshal Bill Zieres said the attic contained blown cellulose insulation ? essentially finely shredded paper ? that probably smoldered for several hours before anyone noticed.
A worker wanting to temporarily cut off power to part of a home would ordinarily flip a circuit breaker manually, then reset it later. But Forrester said he did not know which circuit breaker in the electrical box led to the furnace.
Asked by the investigator why he didn't simply unplug the furnace, he said: "I don't know, didn't even think about it."
Reached by telephone, Misty Forrester told the AP that her husband had no comment. An employee at River of Life Ministries, the home's operators, also said no one had any comment.
Last week, the state of Missouri sued the operator, claiming the home had been secretly, illegally run by Robert DuPont, who was previously convicted in a Medicare and Medicaid fraud scheme. State regulators also stripped the licenses of all four River of Life homes and ordered them closed by Jan. 5.
