5-year-old boy may have started Philadelphia fire

PHILADELPHIA • A five-year-old is said to have likely started a row house fire in Philadelphia that killed a dozen people by setting a Christmas tree ablaze with a lighter, the city's top fire official has said, citing preliminary findings of an investigation.

The child, one of just two survivors, was the only person on the second floor of the house at the time the tree was ignited early last Wednesday, Philadelphia fire commissioner Adam Thiel said.

The boy told police he had been playing with a lighter when the fire erupted, local media reported, citing a search warrant.

"We believe with certainty, so 99 to 100 per cent confidence, that the first item ignited in this blaze was a Christmas tree," Mr Thiel said at a news conference on Tuesday, adding that a lighter was found nearby.

"We are left with the words of that five-year-old child, that traumatised five-year-old child, to help us understand how the lighter and the tree came together with tragic consequences," Mr Thiel said.

He said seven smoke alarms were found in the building, but only one of them sounded as the fire spread. Four of them were found in drawers, one was found on the floor with its battery removed, and another was attached to a ceiling with its battery also removed. The alarm that had activated was in the basement, but its alerts came late.

The city's fire department classified the blaze as incendiary, saying it believed that "there was some type of human intervention to bring the ignition source to the first item ignited".

The fire broke out around 6.30am local time on the second floor of a three-storey row house in the city's Fairmont neighbourhood. The building is owned by the federally funded Philadelphia Housing Authority, the fourth-largest housing authority in the United States.

The tragedy - along with a fire in New York City on Sunday that claimed the lives of 17 people, including eight children - has stirred questions on safety standards in low-income city housing in the US.

Philadelphia fire officials said the building was overcrowded, with about two dozen people inside a structure meant to accommodate two families.

REUTERS