Unattended cooking blamed in fatal Hamilton fire

Fire officials have announced the cause of the blaze that claimed the life of Hamilton’s Tammy Smith Saturday night.

Richard Derstoff of the Ontario Fire Marshall’s office told CHCH’s Lisa Hepfner it started in the kitchen. “We had our forensic fire engineer test the stove and we confirm that one of the elements was in the high position and the cause of the fire was unattended cooking.”

Derstoff says these kind of fires are more common at this time of year. “You have a lot of guests over and get-togethers so there is obviously more cooking going on and a lot of other things going on. What we are trying to encourage people is if they are cooking something on the stove, to make sure they pay attention to that and they watch what they heat and make sure that it is always being attended.”

“If you have loose closing that could come in contact with one of the elements on the stove and it could potentially become a problem as well. Make sure you have nothing dangling over the top of the stove.”

“If something does happen and a fire starts on top of the stove and you are able to cover it up with a lid, you can smother it with a lid, but if it gets out of hand, just make sure you call 911.”

Firefighters frankly don’t know how long the fire was blazing before they arrived at the home. When they got there, flames were shooting out the side windows.

They went out to fight the fire aggressively from inside, and that’s where they found Tammy Smith lying near the living room. They brought her outside and tried to revive her.

She was taken to hospital, but unfortunately she lost her life. Smith had a husband and three children between the ages of 15 and 21; all were out at the time of the blaze.

Two family dogs also died in that fire.

Neighbours and friends are trying to collect donations so the Smith family can get their life started again.