Warrant: 5-Year-Old Might Have Started Deadly Philly Blaze

Warrant: 5-Year-Old Might Have Started Deadly Philly Blaze
Soot covers the exterior wall of the building of Wednesday's fatal fire in the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia, Penn., on Jan. 6, 2022. Matt Rourke/AP Photo
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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Investigators are looking into whether a 5-year-old who was playing with a lighter set a Christmas tree on fire, sparking a conflagration that killed 12 family members in a Philadelphia rowhome, officials revealed Thursday.

That disclosure was included in a search warrant application as city and federal investigators sought to determine the cause of the blaze, the city’s deadliest in more than a century, which took the lives of three sisters and several of their children early Wednesday.