UPDATE: Milford Fire Officials Now Say Cause of Major Fire May Never Be Known

Update Monday 5 p.m.

On Saturday night, fire officials said an unsupervised burning candle was responsible for igniting nearby combustibles, which led to two houses on Melba Street being destroyed and a third house badly damaged in a fire that left behind a pile of rubble.

But fire officials retracted that information quickly and said they were continuing to investigate.

On Monday, a top fire official, Capt. Gregory Carman told the Milford Mirror that “Due to the total destruction of the building and its contents, there are no clues to point to a cause.”

In fact, Carman said it’s likely the cause of the fire will never be determined. 

Several Milford residents have contacted Milford Patch asking how to provide assistance to the families displaced in the blaze but as of right now, nothing official has been set up.

We’ll let you know if something official is set up for the families. 

Original post 7 p.m. Saturday

By Brian McCready, Patch Editor

One look at the devastation left behind by Saturday’s Melba Street fire shows how fortunate there were no injuries reported to anyone living in the houses destroyed in the blaze, and to the firefighters from Milford and West Haven who worked to extinguish the flames.

The Fire Marshal’s office concluded Saturday evening that an unsupervised burning candle that ignited nearby combustibles was the cause of the fire, said a top fire official.

The Fire Department responded to 74 Melba St. for a building fire at 1:36 p.m. Saturday. Upon arrival, heavy fire conditions were already well advanced in the single family home, said Gregory Carman, a captain and Fire Department spokesman. .

“One person was at home when he noticed smoke starting to fill the building and was able to leave without injury,” Carman said. “Fire crews began an aggressive attack on the fire but the winds kept the fire intensity strong and the fire began to spread to the adjoining buildings.”

Additional fire crews were called to the scene as operations switched to a defensive mode to keep the fire from spreading any further, Carman said. Besides the winds, water pressure in the area became a problem until the water company was able to boost the pressure and additional manpower was used to stretch supply hose to other water mains, Carman said.

The fire building is a total loss, along with the home to the west at 70 Melba St., Carman said. The house to the east received extensive damage to one side and its roof, plus interior damage from heat, smoke and water exposure, Carman said.

In all, approximately 30 firefighters were on scene from Milford and West Haven fire departments until all were cleared from the area at 5:39 p.m.

There were no reported injuries to any of the occupants of the three buildings or to any of the firefighters.

Fire crews from Stratford and West Haven were stationed in Milford to cover any other emergency calls while city firefighters were busy at the fire scene.

Photos courtesy of the Milford Fire Department