CHICAGO (AP) -- The Chicago Fire Department traced the origin of a deadly fire at a downtown high-rise back to human hands after its investigators took apart the room where it started and interviewed more than ten witnesses, according to a published report.
Six people died in the Oct. 17 fire at the Cook County Administration Building and investigators from state and local agencies have developed competing theories for how the blaze began.
A Fire Department report explains how its investigators initially considered a light fixture as the cause but later decided that gasoline found in the room pointed to an unknown person as the source of the blaze, the Chicago Tribune reported.
That determination was made ``after a thorough fire-scene examination and with the elimination of all accidental and natural causal factors,'' the newspaper reported, citing a partial copy of the still unreleased Fire Department document.
The Fire Department report said investigators determined that the fire ``was an incendiary act'' that began when an unknown person or persons ``ignited with an open flame the vapors of an ignitable liquid that was poured and/or splashed in the supply room of suite 1240.''
They reached that conclusion after taking apart the room where it began and interviewing witnesses who were working near the room.
The Fire Department report is expected to be among the documents released next week by a Cook County judge presiding over litigation related to the fire.
Some members of a county panel investigating the fire have publicly questioned the Fire Department's conclusions.
Fire expert Jeffrey Eaton told the panel on Wednesday that there was no evidence showing that someone started the blaze. He said a faulty light fixture was likely the cause.
But tests performed by an independent engineer have ruled out the fixture.
