But they still don't know what triggered the blaze that killed Adriene Jones.
"We haven't been able to pinpoint the exact cause," Monroe Fire Chief Ron Fowler said Wednesday. "(But) there's no connection between the fire starting and the child being there."
Investigators have determined the fire started in the room Adriene was in when his foster mother went to check the mailbox on Rocky River Road about 40 yards from the home, a mobile home with additions. Joyce Tanner told authorities she noticed flames as she was returning.
Firefighters arrived within minutes, but the home on Johnsie Thomas Lane was already engulfed in heavy smoke and flames, Fowler said.
No one could get inside to help the boy.
Adriene, who is from Anson County, had been living with Tanner since July, said Roy Young, director of the Union County Department of Social Services.
Tanner has had a license to be a foster parent in Union County since June. Young could not say Wednesday afternoon if she had been licensed before then.
"To be licensed you have to have a fire inspection done (on your house). You have to have a criminal record check," Young said. "You have to complete a physical and have your house inspected."
Tanner does not have any other foster children in her care now.
At the house Wednesday afternoon, a woman who identified herself as a member of Tanner's family said the family had no comment.
Related
