A fire in a Horsham Township building housing 18 illegal immigrants that killed one woman and sent two men to a burn center was accidental, a township official said yesterday.
Fire Marshal George Fida said a cigarette butt placed in a trash can outside a Victorian house at 165 Moreland Ave. touched off the fire early Monday morning.
The flames destroyed a kitchen and the adjoining back shed of a first-floor apartment, where the dead woman was found. The building is a triplex.
Fida identified the victim as Maria Magdalena Obando Rivas, 32. She was trying to escape the blaze when she was overcome by fumes, Fida said.
Her husband, Jorge Rivas, 29, and another man escaped the fire. Rivas was in good condition at Temple University Burn Center. Both men were expected to recover, Fida said.
Jorge Rivas was believed to be from Nicaragua, and efforts were underway to learn the others' countries of origin, Fida said.
Fida said the blaze caused $7,000 worth of damage, which he termed low. The flames broke out at 3:45 A.M. and took about 20 minutes to control.
"It's really a shame," Fida said. "As firefighter, you look at the physical damage that took place and the life toll, and it's so out of whack."
Montgomery County coroner Halbert Fillinger said Tuesday that Obando Rivas died of carbon monoxide poisoning after inhaling smoky fumes.
Police and fire officials hampered by the language barrier scrambled Monday and Tuesday to recruit Spanish-speaking interpreters. Fida said a cousin of Jorge Rivas who acted as interpreter helped authorities identify Obando Rivas.
At first, investigators thought the fire might have been set because neighbors reported hearing a loud argument in Spanish at 2 A.M. Monday.
But investigators ruled out arson, after a specially-trained "fire dog" did not detect accelerants at the site.
The fire forced evacuation of 15 other Central American immigrants who occupied the house.
Ernestine Fobbs, spokesperson for the federal bureau of Immigration and Custom Enforcement, said two people were being held at an undisclosed location for a deportation hearing.
She said 13 others were released with orders to appear before an immgration judge at a later date.
The fire focused attention on the number of occupants who can safely inhabit old homes in Horsham Township.
Jeff Clark, Horsham Township's code enforcement director, said the stone farmhouse was subdivided into a triplex before the zoning code was passed, and that its use was grandfathered in.
Clark issued a letter Tuesday giving property owner Nicholas Braccia, a concrete contractor, five days to furnish an exact floor plan of the house.
Using that information, Clark said, he would compute how many people can legally occupy the space. The township standard is 150 square feet for the first occupant and 100 square feet for each additional person.
Clark said Braccia told him that he believed a family of four was living in the unit that burned, but Clark said eight were actually living there.
Clark and Fida said that the loss of life and injuries sustained in the fire would cause officials to be vigilant for overcrowded homes in the future, but that such efforts would have to be balanced with privacy issues.
"Clearly, this is under the microscope now," Fida said.
