Cause of Blaze Undeternined

After an eight-month investigation, authorities cannot determine the cause of a July 4 fire that killed three girls and three firefighters trying to save them, a source said.

Camden County Prosecutor Vincent J. Sarubbi scheduled a 2 p.m. news conference Tuesday to release the findings. A source close to the investigation said the findings were inconclusive and no charges will be filed.

The findings were first reported by the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill, N.J., after a meeting Monday between authorities and relatives of the victims.

Killed in the fire were Alexandra Slack, 5, and her 3-year-old twin sisters, Claudia and Colletta. Their parents, Frank Slack and Katia Williamson, survived. Williamson was hospitalized for weeks with a burned esophagus.

Frank Slack told reporters in January that investigators believed his careless smoking may have started the blaze after he said he fell asleep July 3 holding a cigarette. He later changed the story, saying he was taking Xanax, a prescription sedative used to treat anxiety, that left him confused.

Even before the pieces of the charred building had been cleaned up, a state fire union official said the blaze was evidence of understaffing by fire departments. Firefighters from all around the blue-collar enclave in the shadows of the Walt Whitman Bridge rushed to the fire.

Two teams of firefighters went into the house to try to find the girls who were trapped on the second floor. Only one team got out before the building collapsed, killing firefighters Thomas G. Stewart III of Gloucester City, and James E. Sylvester and John D. West, both of Mount Ephraim.

The site of the fire near the center of Gloucester City, N.J., remains a makeshift memorial to the six who died. And a string of beef-and-beer fundraisers has raised thousands for the families of the survivors.

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