Cigarette Caused House Blaze, Say Investigators : Oak View: Fire and police officials say they found no sign of arson at home of black family, who still believe it was a racial attack.

A smoldering cigarette, not a firebomb, started the blaze that burned a black family out of their Oak View home two weeks ago, Ventura County investigators concluded Monday.

After an intensive probe that involved a trained dog sniffing for fuel, firefighters sifting through ashes and researchers analyzing shards of window glass, fire and police officials say they found no evidence of arson.

Family members say they still believe the fire was a race-provoked hate crime started by an incendiary device thrown through their front window.

But a joint team of firefighters and police said they could not support that theory.

“There was nothing to indicate that it was flammable liquid” causing the fire, said Sandi Wells, spokeswoman for the Ventura County Fire Department.

Rather, the pattern of the flames suggested a cigarette that began burning out of control, Wells said. The June 7 fire caused $150,000 in damage and left 13-year-old Shuwana Stanford with first- and second-degree burns on her face.

The Stanford family, now living temporarily in a dormitory at a private school in Ojai, did not accept the investigators’ conclusions.

“They can say what they want,” Winnie Stanford, Shuwana’s grandmother, said Monday. “All I know is she doesn’t smoke.”

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Stanford said she was disappointed with the results of the investigation but pleasantly surprised by the community’s response to their crisis. Residents from Ojai Valley and across the county have filled local fire stations with clothes, kitchen supplies and money for the family.

In fact, firefighters have now called off the clothing drive because the family has no space to store any more goods. “I think the whole town has been great,” Winnie Stanford said. “Everyone has been really good to us.”

Six months before the fire, Shuwana had withdrawn from Matilija Junior High School after being the object of racial taunts.

Ten people were sleeping in the three-bedroom home on Grande Vista when the fire broke out at 3:48 a.m. Family members said they heard a popping sound, followed by a single stream of fire. They also described seeing a hole in the living room window. The fire left three family members with minor injuries and left the Stanfords with the uneasy feeling that they were targets of a racial attack.

By the time investigators arrived, the fire had blown out the window glass, leaving no evidence of a hole. They sent pieces of glass to a laboratory to test whether it was broken forcibly, one firefighter said. Investigators also sifted through the ashy remains of the house, looking for a device that could have been attached to a bomb.

They also brought in Buddy, a Labrador retriever trained to sniff out the scent of flammable liquids at fire scenes. “Buddy did not find any indication of flammable liquid,” Wells said.

Investigators then lifted up the living room carpet, looking for the pattern of the fire. A flammable liquid fire tends to leave marks and residue on the floor, said one firefighter, who asked not to be named. But investigators found none of the telltale signs.

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Instead, the pattern resembled a cigarette fire, which builds intensely in one spot and then spreads quickly across a room, authorities said. The fire would likely have destroyed any remains of cigarette butts, they said.

The investigative team, including firefighters and the Sheriff’s Department Major Crimes Unit, was expected to release a full report possibly as early as this week.