Lighter Blamed in Fire That Killed 5

A cigarette lighter being used as a toy apparently ignited last weekend’s Carson townhouse fire that took the lives of five children in an extended family, a detective said Wednesday.

“We believe the cause was most likely children playing with fire,” said Lt. Al Grotefend of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, who supervised the investigation. “It appears to be a tragic accident.”

Killed were four girls, Taeaoalii Koloi, 6; Taamilo Semaia, 8; Taliama Faauli, 6; and Evelina Faauli, 9; and a boy, Pene Koloi, 6.

Adults in the close-knit Samoan household told investigators they had caught the children starting a small fire with a lighter the previous night in the two-story unit in the working-class neighborhood of Scottsdale.

The children had set some paper on fire Saturday night, and others in the 15-member household smelled smoke in time to snuff out the flames.

The adults “took away the lighter and scolded them,” Grotefend said.

Sunday morning, as the family was getting ready for church, a second lighter sparked the fatal blaze while six children were upstairs, authorities said.

A 4-year-old ran downstairs yelling “Fire!” and escaped injury, but the others perished as flames engulfed the home. Rescue efforts by their grandparents, the mother of three of the children, an uncle and two neighbors were repelled by intense heat.

Near two of the bodies, investigators found a lighter believed to have started the blaze. They were unable to determine where the children had obtained the device.

“Who knows where they got it ... You know how children are, they see something lying around and they pick it up,” Grotefend said.

Security bars on the windows were not blamed in the deaths.

Release pins were in place as required, and the fire’s heat was so intense that window exit or entry was impossible, Grotefend said.

A joint funeral is tentatively scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Carson, where the family worships.

On Tuesday, the Carson City Council approved spending up to $35,132 to cover the victims’ burial costs.

The money is left over from a 1998-99 city fundraising effort to aid a girl who died of a brain tumor, officials said.