HUMPHREY, Ark. (AP) -- According to Stuttgart Housing Authority documents, a decades-old mobile home where five children and a young mother died in a fire has a history of failed housing inspections.
Meanwhile Arkansas State Police said Wednesday they had finished their part of an investigation into the cause of last week's blaze, but the overall inquiry continues, with reports from electrical engineers, medical examiners and others still pending.
Most recently the 1955 Humphrey mobile home passed an October 2004 inspection after failing one a month earlier, the reports show. The inspections were required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
That failed Sept. 2, 2004, inspection found the trailer had a broken front-door frame, no floor covering in the bathroom and that the smoke detector in the left, rear bedroom didn't work. When the unit was reinspected on Oct. 13, 2004, paperwork shows it passed.
James Thompson, director of the Stuttgart Housing Authority, said Wednesday that means the September problems were corrected by the trailer's owner. Amanda Clemons, 23, had rented the trailer. She and her sons Dakota, 4, and Edison Ray, 3, died in the April 20 blaze along with Wesley Whiteside, 3, and his brother Steven, 1; and Aiden Joe Richter, 8 months. She was babysitting the three boys.
HUD required the inspections because Clemons used public housing assistance vouchers through the Stuttgart Housing Authority to pay for her rent.
The unit also failed inspection on Oct. 3, 2001 because a handrail was broken, the water heater had no discharge pipe for its temperature and relief valves, there was no smoke alarm in the hall and a question on whether the tie downs for the mobile home were secure, according to the report. Twelve days later the unit passed a reinspection. The unit passed an inspection on Nov. 20, 2002, with no problems, a report showed.
An inspection was scheduled but never completed in 2003 and another inspection was not due until October of this year, Thompson said.
None of the reports showed electrical problems, which family members and neighbors suspected might have caused the fire.
Sgt. Ron Stayton said it would likely be next week before the agency could release more details about the fire. Troopers were still awaiting reports on how the victims died and what may have caused the blaze before issuing a report.
