WATERBURY, Conn. — According to the Fire Chief, a malfunctioning motor scooter caused a fatal Waterbury apartment fire that killed 68-year-old tenant Elias Koulis Monday.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner says the cause of the man's death is still under investigation.
Hours after hot spots were doused and the demolition began today, Waterbury Fire Chief Terrence Ballou said, while tenants of this Colley Street apartment building were fixing a scooter behind the building Monday when the scooter ignited and the fire spread quickly, killing Koulis, in his apartment.
"I woke up, I felt intense heat in my bedroom, I looked out the window and saw red," said the owner of a two-family house next to the 12 unit apartment building.
For 40 years, this man, who asked that he not be identified, owned and lived in the two-family house, which burned to the ground. And he said, "every time he dug into the house I could see another piece of my life being taken away."
And it happened so quickly.
"It’s like you lose your identity in a matter of four hours," the homeowner said.
"It holds a lot of memories for my mom and my family," said Bethany Dvilinskas, a niece of the homeowner. "You know we would have Christmas every year upstairs on the second floor."
Before the crew, from Ocean Trace Demo in Watertown got too far, they assisted a family that lived on the first floor in retrieving two very important suitcases.
"We just got some kind of stuff, like personal you know immigration stuff like that," said Joel Escanio, who was speaking on behalf of his Aybar Mini Market, which was destroyed by the fire.
Chief Ballou reiterated the fire was accidental in nature.