Centralia fire ruled accidental, children died of asphyxiation

The three Centralia children who died in a March 4 fire died of asphyxiation due to smoke inhalation, according to a report released Friday by police and fire officials.

Siblings Benjamin, Madeline and Samuel Tower were unable to escape the home, located at 900 Ham Hill Road, when it caught fire. Investigators ruled that the fire started accidentally, the report says.

But the exact cause of the fire remains undetermined. Investigators from the Centralia Police Department and Riverside Fire Authority identified two potential sources: a lamp with a compact fluorescent light bulb, which might have malfunctioned and caused the fire, or the spontaneous combustion of oily towels, which had been recently laundered and placed in a crate on the home’s front porch.

Both of the possible sources were found at the fire’s point of origin.

The Tower children spent most of their childhoods in Thurston County, where their father, Brad Tower, is a lobbyist at the Capitol. He and the children’s mother, Sue Tower, separated at the end of 2014, and Sue Tower and the children moved to Centralia.

She had been sleeping on the first floor and was unable to reach her children on the second floor when the fire broke out.

According to a Centralia Police Department report, Sue Tower told detectives that the night before the fire had been a normal one. She made dinner for the children, then read them stories before bed.

Madeline, 10, had been having nightmares, so she slept in 12-year-old Benjamin’s room at the back of the house. Samuel, 7, slept in his own room at the front of the house, she said.

Sue Tower said she awoke to a “crack” and heard stomping upstairs. She said she was unable to go to her children because it was too hot. The fire alarms weren’t going off.

She reported that she exited the house, and tried to re-enter through the back door, but it was locked.

Homeowners Bill and Becca Bates, who rented the home to Sue Tower, said that the home did have several smoke alarms, according to a Riverside Fire Authority report. They were able to name the specific locations of four smoke alarms.

While the cause of the fire is undetermined, Riverside Fire Marshal Richard Mack said the fire was accidental.

“There is no evidence supporting the conclusion of an intentionally set fire by any person,” Mack wrote.

No one from the Centralia Police Department was available to comment on the report Friday.

This story was originally published May 13, 2016 at 1:31 PM with the headline "Centralia fire ruled accidental, children died of asphyxiation."