Fire at Black Family’s Home Not Arson

Fire investigators said Monday that a blaze that destroyed the home of a black family last week was not arson but an accident, despite family members’ contentions that their Oak View home was deliberately torched.

“There was no crime,” said Fire Investigator Peter Cronk of the swift-moving blaze that displaced 10 people and injured three. A full report on the fire is expected to be released Wednesday, he said.

Rummaging through the gutted house last Tuesday, fire officials said the pre-dawn blaze was either an arson or an accident. Because one of the Stanford children, Shuwana, 13, had withdrawn from school as a result of alleged racial harassment, some family members speculated that the blaze may have been purposely set and racially motivated.

But after several days of investigation, fire and sheriff’s officials said there was no evidence to suggest arson.

“There’s no physical evidence to support a crime,” Lt. Craig Husband of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department’s major crimes division said Monday. “It’s not an arson, at least not an arson where anything was thrown into the house.”