The fire was contained to one unit at the roughly 300-unit Casagmo condo complex. —Karen Breslin photo
It’s been more than a month since a fire on April 23 swept through 15 Cook Close, the Casagmo condo, fatally injuring an elderly woman who died three days later.
The investigation that followed the blaze has come and gone, but the results remain distant, depending on the workload of the state police crime investigation laboratory, according to Fire Marshal David Lathrop.
The fire was contained to one unit of a building at Cook Close.
“We are still waiting on the state lab results. The press doesn’t understand, these things can take a year,” Lathrop said last week, when asked about results of the investigation.
The average turnaround time on a fire investigation is 42 days, said Dr. Guy M. Vallaro, director of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Division of Scientific Services, based in Meriden.
It is the so-called forensics lab, where samples from crime scenes including murders and fires are sent.
He said he is currently working on April cases, with a backlog of nine cases for the month.
It’s a busy place.
“Over the last two years we have averaged 100 cases a year in the arson lab,” Vallaro said. “The current goal for the entire lab is results in less than 30 days.”
Part of what the lab looks for is whether flammable liquid products possibly were used to set the fire, said Fire Marshal Adam Libros of Vernon, who is the treasurer for the Connecticut Fire Marshals Association.
The group promotes fire safety and is a source of advocacy and education for the state’s 250 member fire marshals.
The steps taken in the Ridgefield fire are exactly the same as steps Libros would take if there were a fatal condo fire in his town, he said.
“The way he processes his scene is the way I do mine,” Libros said. “Through interviews, and a step-by-step approach of actual scene investigation, we try to find fire patterns. We take samples and send them to the state lab.”
It could be floor samples, or rug samples. It depends on the actual items burned during the fire, and the cause that the fire marshal is leaning toward. Everything needs to go to the state lab for analysis.
“It could be electrical wiring — it depends on where you’re leaning,” Libros said.
And the fire scene remains untouched, off limits, for the next group of investigators.
“If it doesn’t look like an incendiary fire, everything is left in place for the insurance investigator,” Libros said.
It can be a complicated process.
“Sometimes it’s clear what occurred. Other times it’s not,” Libros said.
The fire resulted in the death of Sandra Reyes, 78. Her son, Joseph Reyes, was injured in the fire. The fire marshal initially had to wait until he could question Joseph Reyes.
The family buried Sandra Reyes on May 1.
The post Deadly fire investigation results could take time appeared first on The Ridgefield Press.