Coroner: Cause of Fort Wayne fire that killed 4 kids unknown

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — A coroner’s office says an April fire that killed four children when it swept a mobile home in northeastern Indiana began in or near a recliner, but investigators have been unable to determine what sparked the blaze.

The Allen County Coroner’s Office said Wednesday that an Indiana State Fire Marshal’s Office report found that the amount of fire damage the Fort Wayne mobile home sustained made it impossible to prove a definitive cause “to an acceptable level of certainty.”

The coroner’s office says the manner of the children’s deaths had therefore been ruled as “undetermined.”

The coroner’s office previously ruled that smoke inhalation and thermal burns caused the deaths of siblings Matthew Damron, 10; Johnnie Mann-Goff, 5; Jefferson Goff, 3; and Rosalynn Goff, 2. At least four adults who lived in the home were outside when firefighters arrived.