COURT HOUSE – A fire on Stone Harbor Boulevard was determined to be accidental and was most likely caused by a cord going into a surge protector, Conrad Johnson Jr., the county fire marshal, said.
Johnson explained that a forensic engineer appointed by an insurance company would make a final determination as to the Jan. 21 fire’s cause. The county is responsible for pinpointing the location and giving a possible cause.
“It doesn’t seem like there was anything improperly done. It just seemed as if the surge protector cord had some sort of a defect possibly or overheated for some reason. It didn’t seem like it had too much plugged into it. Surge protectors quite commonly have failures and that’s something people need to be aware of,” Johnson said.
The Herald sought to get information for the public into the cause of the fire, in case there was a lesson from the cause that could be used by others in prevention efforts, and to learn whether there was some criminal element involved in the cause.
Johnson called the Herald after an article was published laying out the unsuccessful efforts to contact him via email and phone.
