Conn. Family Among Dead in Train Fire

A family that perished in a train fire in France early Wednesday was returning from a one-day visit to Paris, where the father had asked his wife to marry him 16 years ago.

Salvatore Michael Amore, 43, and his relatives had been vacationing in Germany, said sister-in-law Anna Marie Amore.

“They called Saturday. They were excited. They were having a great time,” she said.

Besides Salvatore Amore, the victims were his wife, Jeanne, 43; daughter Emily Jeanne, 12; son Michael Bernhardt, 8; and mother, Susanne, 72.

Salvatore Amore was a partner in an accounting firm in West Haven and an adjunct professor of accounting at Quinnipiac University in Hamden.

The Amores were killed when a fire on an overnight train filled a sleeping car with smoke. The blaze, which killed 12 people and injured nine, initially was blamed on an electrical short circuit. But the French rail authority SNCF said that the assessment was premature and that the cause was under investigation.

The train had no smoke detectors, even though cigarette smoking is allowed in designated cars.

The fire began three hours after the train left Paris as it passed through the city of Nancy on its way to Munich, Germany.