Five-year-old may have accidentally started deadly Philadelphia fire that killed 12

Investigators are looking into the possibility that a five-year-old child who was playing with a lighter set a Christmas tree on fire, sparking a fire that killed 12 people, including eight children, in a Philadelphia house fire, officials revealed Thursday.

The revelation was included in a search warrant application as city and federal investigators sought to determine the cause of the city’s deadliest single blaze in more than a century.

The fire took the lives of two sisters, several of their children and others early Wednesday.

Relatives and friends of the victims of the blaze shed tears and consoled one another at a candlelight vigil

Officials did not release the names or ages of those killed in the blaze, which started around 6:30 am.

A candlelight vigil was held by relatives and friends in the community for the victims. Relatives carried picture frames and wore t-shirts with the faces of the victims and released balloons in their memory.

In a statement at the vigil, relatives said the matriarch of their family had lost three daughters and nine grandchildren.

The daughters were identified as Rosalee McDonald, 33, Virginia Thomas, 30, and Quinsha White. There were two survivors, the family said. Temple University Hospital said one was in stable condition.

'We feel the love': Andrea Underwood, the family spokesperson, thanked people for their 'kindness, generosity and prayers'

Jane Roh, spokesperson for District Attorney Larry Krasner, confirmed the contents of the search warrant, which was first reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Fire officials provided few details at an afternoon news briefing, declining to say how many people escaped the blaze or speculate on a possible cause, adding the fire scene was complex. Officials also did not say where the fire began, calling it part of the investigation.

“I know that we will hopefully be able to provide a specific origin and cause to this fire and to provide some answers to the loved ones and, really, to the city,” said Matthew Varisco, who leads the Philadelphia branch of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

ATF specialists and other investigators took photos and combed through the charred, three-story brick duplex.

Officials said on Wednesday that 26 people were staying in the two apartments. The city’s fire marshal, Deputy Chief Dennis Marrigan, said on Thursday that investigators were seeking to determine how many people lived in the building and how many might have just been visiting.

The building is owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, the city’s public housing agency and the state’s biggest landlord.

Fourteen people were authorised to live in the four-bedroom upper apartment that “suffered the tragedy,” according to Kelvin Jeremiah, the housing authority’s president and CEO, while six people were on the lease in the lower unit.

When the family upstairs became tenants in 2011, there were six people — a grandmother, her three daughters and two of their children, Jeremiah said. He said the family grew over the next decade to add another eight children.

PHA “does not evict people because they have children,” Jeremiah said.

“This was an intact family who chose to live together. We don’t kick out our family members ... who might not have other suitable housing options,” he said.

Jeremiah, who struggled to keep his composure at times, said the authority has reached out to the surviving family members from both units to help rehouse them.

“All of us at PHA are shaken,” he said.

The fire department previously said none of the four smoke alarms in the building appeared to have been working. But housing authority officials said on Thursday the building actually had 13 tamper-resistant, 10-year detectors in the units, all of which were operational during the last inspection in May 2021.