Origin and Cause of an Apartment Kitchen Fire, Central Texas (2020)

A fire sprinkler stopped a kitchen fire in a third floor apartment in Central Texas in 2020, and the owner of the community asked us to investigate it. Details of the property stay confidential.

A small fire with wide effects

The sprinkler kept the fire small, but the water came through the ceiling of the unit below, and walls in the unit under that one were opened to check for moisture. When we arrived about a month later, the unit was vacant, the fire debris had been cleared away, and maintenance staff had removed the breakers for the range and the disposal so no one could turn those circuits back on. Each of those steps made sense for the property. Each also took away part of the evidence.

Reading what was left

We documented the building, the unit and the two apartments below it. Smoke staining rose up the wall and ceiling above the electric range. The control knobs on the right side of the range were undamaged and in the off position. The knobs on the left side were too badly damaged to read without destructive examination. On the cooktop, a burn pattern showed that a round object had been sitting on the left rear burner, and a V pattern ran from that burner up the left side of the control panel, up the wall and into the bottom of the microwave above. The oven was in good condition. Behind the range, the power cord, the wall plug and the wall itself showed no fire or heat damage.

Weighing another account

The fire department report described an unattended item on the stove and recorded the right rear burner knob in the on position. Our observations were consistent with an item on the cooktop, but not with that knob position, because the knobs on the right side were found off. We stated the difference plainly. We had not been authorized to interview the previous occupant, so our report did not rely on what that person may have done.

Our findings

Following NFPA 921, the area of origin was the electric range top, and the point of origin was the unknown object on the left rear burner. The first material ignited could not be determined, because the debris had been discarded before our inspection.

Keep the debris

Cleanup after a kitchen fire is usually fast, and the debris on the cooktop is often the only thing that can show what burned first. Setting it aside keeps that question open. We handle losses like this through our fire and explosion practice, and questions about the range itself go to our appliance and product failure investigations.