Mat-Su

Family of girls who died in Butte fire are doing their own investigation

The family of the five girls killed in a Butte mobile home fire Sept. 7 have hired an attorney and an investigator to conduct a private examination of what happened, family members said.

The government investigation by the State Fire Marshal's Office concluded the fire was a cooking-related accident, but in a Thursday announcement didn't provide many details. No one will face criminal charges in the fire, said David Tyler, state fire marshal.

But the family is questioning the finding that the fire was related to cooking, the children's grandmother, Susan Secco, said Friday. The family has been reluctant to say much more than that — Secco said they have been asked by their attorney not to say too much while they pursue the investigation.

[Investigators say the Butte trailer fire started in kitchen and was 'cooking related']

The attorney is Josh Fannon, from Palmer, whose practice is mainly criminal defense. A message left for Fannon on Friday wasn't returned.

A pan was on the stove but her daughter and the girls' mother, Janelle Quackenbush, told her no one was using it for cooking that morning, Secco said.

The girls, ages 3 to 12, were home alone early on Sept. 7, a Thursday, while Quackenbush ran Secco to her job as a nurse at the Palmer Pioneer Home. Their father, Jimmy Flores, was in his first week training for a new job as a school bus driver.

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The oldest daughter, Alexis Quackenbush, was up when her mother left the house. But her grandmother said a kid that age wouldn't take time to cook in the early morning rush before school.

An uncle of the girls, Armando Astorga, walked through the burned kitchen, Secco said. He reported that the stove was mostly intact but the freezer section of the refrigerator was "melted shut," she said.

Astorga declined to discuss what he saw with a reporter until the family's investigation is complete.

"If it's the last thing I do my granddaughter will NOT take the blame for this," Secco said in a text.

Family took comfort in one revelation: The girls died of smoke inhalation and didn't burn to death, the grandmother said.

On Thursday, Tyler told reporters investigators looked at burn patterns and heavy charring inside and out to determine the fire started in the kitchen. They started by examining outside walls and worked their way in, he said.

Smoke and heat form a sort of inverted 3-D cone that leaves a V print on walls, he said at the news conference. The images show how a fire moves and burns, he said.

"You go inside and there's a number of things that will point you," Tyler said. "People refer to it as a V pattern – V points to where the fire started."

Smoke patterns led investigators to the kitchen, he said. But whether the fire started at the stove or somewhere else, he wouldn't say. He also wouldn't say anything about what was being cooked and how.

"I'm providing what I can provide," Tyler said. He said he wanted to give fire investigators the days it would take to finish and didn't want to misstate the evidence.

Megan Peters, spokesperson for Alaska State Troopers, said Friday that investigators weren't ready to say more.

['It is too much,' says uncle of 5 girls killed in Butte mobile home fire]

As fire investigators were talking with news reporters Thursday, some in the family were at the funeral home saying goodbye.

Kehl's Palmer Legacy Funeral Home donated the cost of cremating the girls, Secco said. An employee of the funeral home sat with the girls' remains around the clock, she said.

A memorial with speakers, music, an open mic and candlelight procession is set to start at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Palmer Train Depot. The family and friends are expecting a crowd. Immediate family and close friends can be seated starting at 5:30 p.m.

The space may fill up and organizers are trying to arrange for an outdoor sound system. The procession will start about 7:15 p.m.

Fundraisers are planned or are underway for the family. People who want to donate directly can do so through Matanuska Valley Federal Credit Union Account No. 158068, which the institution confirmed was set up to benefit the Jimmy Flores family.

Lisa Demer

Lisa Demer was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News. Among her many assignments, she spent three years based in Bethel as the newspaper's western Alaska correspondent. She left the ADN in 2018.

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