Cause of Las Vegas house fire that killed 4 ‘undetermined’

The cause of a house fire that killed four family members in October was “undetermined,” the Clark County Fire Department said in a report released Wednesday.

Two adults and two children, all in the same family, were found dead inside a home after a blaze on Oct. 24 at 8332 Langhorn Creek St., near West Windmill Lane and South Jones Boulevard, that began just before 4:10 a.m.

The department’s partially redacted report said investigators could not rule out several potential causes of the fire because of its “excessive damage” that made several examinations impossible.

Four members of the Adem family were found dead after the fire. The four who died were Abdul, 43, Ibrahim, 48, Anaya, 7, and Aaliyah Adem, 6. Two family members survived. Senait Adem, who was Abdul Adem’s wife and the mother of Anaya and Aaliyah, jumped from a third-story window with their son Amani Adem, 5.

The Clark County Coroner’s office later determined that the cause of death for the four victims was carbon monoxide toxicity. Officials ruled that the manner of death was accidental.

John Steinbeck, then the Clark County fire chief, said in an October news conference that the fire would take “months” to investigate, but warned that the investigation might be hindered by the extent of the home’s damage, as the roof, second and third floors of the house collapsed during the fire.

Resident seen smoking outside

Investigators were unable to determine if the fire was caused by a lit cigarette, though one person in the home was a “known smoker” and a resident was seen smoking outside the home shortly before the fire started, the report said.

In one video obtained by investigators, a resident is seen exiting the front door of the home around 3:12 a.m. and lighting a cigarette before walking out of the view of the camera.

When the resident returns four minutes later, the cigarette is not visible. Investigators could not confirm where the cigarette was left and could not rule out that a cigarette was the cause of the fire because of the fire’s extensive damage, according to the report.

Investigators noted in the report that the family had a “very strict” policy that all smoking must be done outside of the home. The fire began on the west side of the second floor in the home’s main living area, the report said.

Investigators were able to rule out that the fire was intentionally caused by someone inside or outside the home and that no lighters or matches were left around the house that could be accessed by a child.

Report: Investigators blocked

The house’s condemnation and a refusal from the home’s insurance company to devote more resources toward investigating the fire further hindered investigators’ ability to find the cause of the fire, the report said.

On Oct. 26, just two days after the fire, investigators were blocked from entering the home after it was condemned by the Clark County Building Department.

The home was also mostly demolished less than a week after the fire when officials became concerned that the home could collapse more and damage nearby homes, the Review-Journal reported.

After the home was condemned, investigators were notified by a source — the source’s identity was redacted in the report — that there were emails and invoices for service calls and work tickets related to several household appliances. But because of the state of the house and the insurance company’s “disinterest in dedicating additional time and resources for excavation,” the appliances were not recovered from the home, the report said.

In all, fire damages were estimated to be $600,000, according to the report.

The department said in a news release Wednesday that the fire investigation is “classified as open, although it is currently inactive,” pending new data.

Redacted Clark County Fire Department’s Origin & Cause Report by Las Vegas Review-Journal on Scribd

Contact Taylor Lane at tlane@reviewjournal.com.