Investigations of Oakdale House Fires Reveal Answers, and Questions

Further investigation of two major house fires in Oakdale that occurred over the last week revealed a likely cause of one, and more questions about the other.

Oakdale firefighters battled a blaze in the 2200 block of Grafton Avenue around midnight Thursday night, and then a fire at a mobile home in Twenty-Nine Pines around 10:30 p.m. Monday night.

Fire officials initially thought that a charcoal grill left to cool on the home’s back deck might have been the cause of the Grafton Avenue fire, however, Oakdale Fire Chief Jeff Anderson said they found the fire originated on the opposite side of the deck from the grill.

It’s still possible that it was a spark from the grill he said, but there are a number of other possible causes, he said.

“We couldn’t come up with an exact cause,” he said. The cause of the fire is now accidental, undetermined, he said.

The home wasn’t a total loss, he said, because the fire didn’t get into the living quarters. Flames went up the side, rear exterior, attic and roof area of the home, he said.

In the fire at Twenty-Nine Pines mobile home park, a candle was the likely culprit, he said.

The power had been turned off to the home, and so they were using candles for light, he said. Everyone inside was in the front of the home, and it appears that a candle on a wooden ledge in a back bedroom burned down to the bottom and ignited other nearby flammable items, he said, and from there the fire spread.

The mobile home, he said, was a total loss.