Careless smoking blamed for fatal fire

Careless smoking is to blame for a fire that killed a mother and her two children in their Hamilton mountain home in June.

The fire started in the basement of a home on Laird drive in the middle of the night. Sammy Khalil, his sister Sarah and his mother were overcome by smoke. Firefighters found one of them just behind the front door, another under a table in the living room, but it was too late.

More than 3 months later the Fire Marshal’s office has finished its investigation and says it was caused by careless smoking. The investigator said they don’t know how long it took the fire to start or what caught fire first but there was an armchair, clothing and other items all in that corner of the basement. Investigators say someone had tried to put out the flames, there was water running in the laundry room.

Claudio Mostacci from Hamilton fire says careless smoking is one of the leading causes of fire in the city.

“Sometimes cigarettes can smoulder up to 6 hours before it can actually ignite into a fire.”

He also stresses the importance of having working smoke alarms.

“The smoke alarm will make you aware of that fire and will wake you if you have fallen asleep and you will be able to get yourself out and your family out.”

The home on Laird dr., owned by city housing Hamilton, had two smoke alarms that had been working when inspected two weeks prior. The investigator says the one in the basement was too damaged to test if it worked but the one on the main level was working when they checked it. Both were hard wired but didn’t have back up batteries. Nobody heard the alarm when firefighters arrived.