Stamford House Fire Was "Raging...Like If You Opened The Door Up To A Furnace"

Photograph of Matthew Badger with his daughters Grace, Sarah and Lily

Today, the NY Times publishes a terribly sad photograph of the three little girls who died inside their Stamford, Connecticut home during a Christmas Day fire. In the picture, the girls, 7-year-old twins Grace and Sarah and 9-year-old Lily, are with their father Matthew Badger, smiling and happy. According to the Times, funeral arrangements are still being made, but it's expected that they will take place next week. The Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home's vice-president, Dominic Carella, said the girls would be placed in individual coffins.

On Christmas Eve, the three sisters were staying with their mother, Madonna Badger (who was separated from her husband), grandparents, and their mother's boyfriend, contractor Michael Borcina, in the $1.725 million home with views of the Long Island Sound. Around 3 a.m., after the kids and grandparents were in bed, Borcina apparently emptied out the still-smolding embers from the fire into a bag and placed it either in the mudroom or in an outdoor trash enclosure. From there, a fire ignited the three-story Victorian and by 5 a.m., when firefighters were on the scene, they were only able to save Madonna Badger, who was on second floor scaffolding trying to reach her daughters, and Borcina, who had to be restrained from re-entering the house.

The flames were too intense for the firefighters to enter, and one firefighter who tried to get close had second-degree burns on his face. Stamford Fire & Rescue Deputy Chief William Smith said during the firefighters' attempts to look for victims on the second floor, "The fire was just raging out there, like if you opened the door up to a furnace in your basement."

The three girls and their grandmother Pauline Johnson died of smoke inhalation (the grandmother's body was found on the stairs between the second and third floors, with one of the twins under her, apparently trying to protect the girl from the heat and smoke) while grandfather Lomer Johnson died from blunt trauma to the head and neck—he fell through a second floor roof while trying to save Lily. Madonna Badger was released from the hospital a day after the fire while Borcina was released yesterday morning.

Stamford officials do not expect to press any criminal charges.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on December 29, 2011 10:22 AM

Comments [rss]

Count_Yob

Stamford officials sure were quick to exonerate Borcino. Why so hasty?

Love

He's "OK”??!! I'm sure the father of those 3 little girls is very happy to hear that!! This moron killed his 3 girls. A little bit of water would have avoided this tragedy, why’d he take the ambers out of the fireplace any whey? DOPE!! The hero’s here are the grandparents. They did everything they could to try to save these girls… If I was the father I would empty his pockets…

bkk8

I hope that Borcina idiot will not have the gall to show up at the funeral. But, he probably will, trying to evoke some sort of sympathy for himself by pretending to be injured on crutches with pretend bandages. After all, he was the gallant hero who went back into the house to rescue the girls and they got separated - yeah, right. Such a sad story.

whiteiris

The firefighters all need counseling and this jackass, who caused the devastation, is saying he and the wife are ok. If nothing else he needs to be in jail for being a complete moron. What contractor throws embers outside or some say left in a foyer. Someone not used to fireplaces I can almost understand but a contractor? If this had happened around the house in neighboring areas then would they have thrown his ass in jail? Hopefully the father will sue him into poverty.

According to CBS the poor grandfather propped one of the girls on a pile of books so he could reach her when he climbed out the window. Tragically they think the temporary structure gave in and couldn't support him. They found the poor girl on the books.

Freddi BuBu

So not only did this Borcina character f*ck his wife, but he literally snuffed out the lives of his three daughters?! Makes you think what Matthew could ever have done, even in a past lifetime, to deserve all of this....

JumpForJoy26

A man loses all three of his daughters as well as their mother, his estranged wife, in a tragic fire, and you are saying he is to blame, because of karma, something he did in a past life?!!

Wow. You are a sicko. I feel sorry for you and anyone (family, co-workers, etc.) who has to be around you.

Freddi BuBu

That was meant in a rhetorical sense, you nimrod - that is, if you know what THAT means.....

GentleGiant

Not his wife or daughters.

splicernyc

Five people died because of someone's stupidity but I suppose that's only an accident so all's well that ends well. As long as Borcina will be OK.

Rocknrope

...in the $1.725 million home with views of the Long Island Sound...""

I've seen this fact repeated in multiple stories from several news sources on this tragedy, and I continue to fail to see the relevance. What are we to gain from this information: that this family was rich and that terrible things happen to rich people too, or that it's amazing that a nearly two-million dollar home went up so easily in flames? Would this be any less tragic if it was a 300K apartment in Bay Ridge?

Listing the monetary value of a home where 5 people, including three children, lost their lives seems incredibly crude and churlish.

TWaller

The media (Gothamist included) knows that they can get a stronger response by tapping into people's mentality of "oh look, the rich elites got what's coming to them." They won't admit, but that's what they're doing.

I grew up in a $20,000 house and I don't feel less sympathy for this tragic case just because they were in a million-dollar home. But I know a lot of people who will think to themselves, "Those mean rich folks did something to deserve the wrath of Jesus" or something like that. A lot of people will take pleasure in the fact that it was an expensive home.

Rocknrope

That does indeed seem to be the underlying sentiment, doesn't it? It's a pretty demented view, like shadenfreude gone grisly.

Roger_the_Shrubber

The media always think in terms of class warfare.

splicernyc

You mean the rich corporate media?

Billy Don

A lot of issues yet to be discussed in this tragedy. The mother's boyfriends comments are rather cold and are not sympathetic to the victims. Time will tell. This is not over.

concreteblonde

I couldn't agree with you more. Who in their right mind would take embers out of a fireplace? Also why would you not douse them with water until fully extinguished? Lastly, why leave them leaning against the side of the house? It all seems very suspect.

michelleinky

But guess what? Do some googling and it happens more often than you think. Lots of people incorrectly dispose of fireplace embers, he isn't the first one to do so and he won't be the last. Be grateful you don't have to live with that kind of screw up.

AuntySemantic

How brain dead do you have to be to put embers in anything but metal? Oddly enough none of the reports mention in what kind of bag the embers were placed. Paper, canvas, plastic.