A child playing with fire is the most likely cause of a blaze that gutted the second floor of an apartment building at 26 Maple St., Batavia, on Friday.
According to Lt. Jay Steinbrenner of the Batavia City Fire Department, the physical evidence and the version of events given by the mother are consistent and the fire will officially be deemed accidental.
It's unknown if the child was playing with matches or a lighter.
The names of the occupants of the three unit complex are not yet available.
The mother burned her hand trying to grab a pillow that had been set on fire so she could throw it out of the apartment.
When she couldn't successfully deal with the fire herself, she evacuated her children from the apartment and then called 9-1-1.
Heavy smoke and some flames were already billowing out of the second-floor windows by the time the first firefighters arrived on scene at about 1:30 p.m.
Steinbrenner said that one firefighter observed upon entering the building, "It's a big fire real quick."
The upstairs rooms were filled with thick black smoke when firefighters entered through northside door.
The wind was from the south, so smoke and flames were being blown in the opposite direction. Firefighters needed to push the blaze -- they wanted to push it toward the southside windows, which would give them the best chance to save as much of the structure as possible.
In all, Steinbrenner said, he thought the city crews did a good job of accomplishing their goal.
Though the building was razed, the first floor remained structurally sound and the two downstairs occupants were able to recover almost all of their personal belongings.
"The fire was contained to the second floor," Steinbrenner said. "I thought we did a good job. The tenants downstairs were able to salvage their possessions. There was very little damage downstairs, just water damage."
