Christmas tree that fueled a fire killing 6 people was to be tossed the next day
Annapolis mansion destroyed by fire
The owners of the 16,000-square-foot mansion, Don and Sandra Pyle, and four of their grandchildren died in the blaze.
By Lynh Bui August 5 at 3:36 PM
The 15-foot Fraser fir that twinkled with Christmas lights was showing its age. After six weeks on display in the castle-like mansion overlooking the water in Annapolis, its branches were drooping and its needles were dropping.
The tree was supposed to come down Jan. 20. But the night before it was to be removed, it became the powerful tinder fueling a blaze that consumed Don and Sandra Pyle’s home, leaving the couple and their four grandchildren dead.
That the Christmas tree was slated to be removed the day after the blaze was yet another devastating detail that emerged from a report released Wednesday investigating one of the deadliest fires Maryland has seen in decades.
“That was one of the worst pieces of information that came out of this,” said Dave Cheplak, a spokesman and special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives field division in Baltimore.
Authorities with the ATF and the Anne Arundel County Fire Department issued the 43-page report about seven months after investigators declared that an electrical outlet powering tree lights overheated, igniting a tree skirt leading to the eventual inferno that killed Don, 56, and Sandy 63. Also lost in the fire were two sets of Boone siblings: Lexi, 8, and Katie, 7; Charlotte, 8, and Wes, 6.
“According to interviews, the tree located in the Great Room was steadily dropping needles and the branches had started drooping,” according to the report. But “Don and Sandy Pyle both wanted to keep the tree in the Great Room longer because they felt like they hadn’t had a chance to enjoy it.”
On the night of the fire, smoke alarms in the home were functioning, but because the brittle tree provided such a massive fuel load, the fire quickly swept through the house leaving the family unable to escape.
“The whole sequence of events was horrendous,” said Capt. Russ Davies, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel fire department.
More than 230 firefighters, investigators and law enforcement officials from around the region were involved in putting out the blaze or searching for bodies in the charred rubble of the 16,000-square-foot home. Over days of painstaking work, investigators found the four children and their grandmother in guest bedrooms on the second floor of the home, according to the report. Don Pyle was found in the Great Room of the home where the tree decorated in 15 strands of glowing lights lit 24-7 once stood.
“Males tend to attempt to extinguish a fire, whereas females attempt to save their family members or victims,” Cheplak said. “Donald ran downstairs thinking he could somehow extinguish the fire but was overcome very quickly.”
The report released Wednesday also detailed work ATF researchers conducted in the aftermath of the fire. ATF investigators ordered three Christmas trees similar to the one displayed in the Pyle home and conducted controlled burns at their laboratory in Beltsville.
The trees watered weekly ignited in anywhere from five to 30 seconds, according to the report. But a tree that was watered daily took about seven minutes to catch. The two trees watered weekly were consumed in less than a minute, while the tree watered daily extinguished on its own.
The tree in the Pyle home was watered about once a week, officials said.
While authorities were careful not to place blame or point fingers, they said the tragedy offered lessons for others.
“Certainly that’s not a good idea to keep a tree much past New Year’s Day,” Cheplak said, “but if that tree had been watered on a daily basis, it would have made a significant difference.”
The Boone and Pyle families, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on the details of the report.
Cheplak said it was difficult for the family and investigators to go over the details of the report Tuesday night and relive the pain of the fire.
“I think they came away from it with a better understanding of why this happened and how it happened,” Cheplak said, “and that is all we can hope for.”
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Report: Grandparents in Annapolis mansion fire believed to have tried to save children
ATF spokesman Special Agent David Cheplak briefs media on the Annapolis mansion fire investigation. The ATF released its final report on the Childs Point Road fire that killed six people in January 2015.
By Tim Pratt tpratt@capgaznews.com
Final report concludes fatal Annapolis mansion fire started when electrical outlet ignited a tree skirt
Grandparents in Annapolis mansion fire believed to have tried to save children
What did the final report on the Annapolis area mansion fire say?
Fire investigators on Wednesday said the owners of an Annapolis area mansion appear to have tried to save their four young grandchildren before succumbing to smoke and heat last winter during Anne Arundel County's deadliest fire in decades.
The final 43-page report on the Childs Point Road fire, released Wednesday morning, concluded the blaze started when a corroded electrical outlet in the floor ignited a Christmas tree skirt, sending flames quickly up the tree and into the rest of the house during the early morning hours of Jan. 19.
It occurred after Christmas tree lights on the dried up 15-foot Fraser fir had been left on continuously for six weeks, which heated up the outlet that sparked the blaze, according to the report.
Video 360-degree scans of pre-excavation and post-excavation of the Childs Point fire scene by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Investigators said homeowner Don Pyle, a 63-year-old software executive, appears to have tried to extinguish the blaze while his wife, Sandra Pyle, 56, rushed to save the grandchildren in their guest bedrooms. All six of them perished.
"The whole sequence of events was horrendous," said county fire department Capt. Russ Davies.
The final report on the four-alarm fire, compiled by county fire investigators and the ATF, sheds more light on the incident that drew national attention.
The blaze also has prompted county officials to launch a campaign on Christmas tree safety this coming holiday season. Federal officials, meanwhile, are encouraging people to make sure their trees are properly watered.
"Hopefully we can prevent something like this from happening again in the future," said special agent David Cheplak, spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The fire was reported around 3:30 a.m. The Pyles were inside the home with grandchildren Alexis Boone, 8, Kaitlyn Boone, 7, Charlotte Boone, 8, and Wesley Boone, 7.
The children were spending the night after going to Medieval Times at Arundel Mills. They didn't have school Jan. 19 due to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.
The first call to 911 came from the Pyles' alarm company. Smoke detectors had been triggered on the first- and second floors, and in the basement. A gas detector also was triggered.
Calls began coming in from neighbors a short time later.
Dozens of firefighters from Anne Arundel County, Annapolis and the Naval Academy arrived and spent the ensuing hours battling the blaze. It was placed under control shortly after 7 a.m. Much of the house collapsed into the basement. The family wasn't able to escape.
The structure didn't have a sprinkler system.
"A sprinkler system may not even have had an effect based on the intensity of the fire," Cheplak said.
Caption Fire Childs Point Road
By Glenn A. Miller, Correspondent
Firefighters train hoses and water from an engine onto the massive fire that destroyed a mansion on Childs Point Road.
Caption Fire Childs Point Road
By Glenn A. Miller / The Capital
Raging fire engulfed the home of Don and Sandy Pyle on Childs Point Road. The Pyles and four of their grandchildren died in the fire.
After controlling the fire, firefighters spent the next two days extinguishing hot spots. They also dealt with water in the basement, unstable steel beams and unstable walls, according to the report. About 10 feet of sludge had to be removed from the basement.
"This wasn't a normal residential fire," Cheplak said.
Heavy equipment and cadaver dogs were brought in to search for the bodies. They were located and removed over the next several days.
The body of Don Pyle was found in the collapsed debris of the "Great Room," where the tree had been located. The ceiling was approximately 19 feet high. Sleeping and living areas were connected to the Great Room.
The bodies of Sandra Pyle, Wesley Boone and Kaitlyn Boone were found in one guest bedroom. The body of Charlotte Boone was found in another guest bedroom. The body of Alexis Boone was found in a third guest bedroom.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore determined the Pyles and their grandchildren died of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries. The Boones were students at Severn School.
"Severn School continues to offer deepest condolences and support to the families," said school spokeswoman Kristyn Kuhn.
The school will create a memorial for the children.
"Something will absolutely happen at the families’ wishes and on their timeline," Kuhn said.
Cheplak asked reporters to respect the Boone and Pyle families' privacy and not to contact them. They were briefed on the final report Tuesday evening. Previous attempts to contact them have been unsuccessful.
Immediately after the fire, memorials sprung up outside the gate of the home and at a nearby intersection. Hundreds attended a memorial service for the family.
Test burns on Christmas trees were conducted at an ATF laboratory in Beltsville more than two months later. The Pyles' tree had been cut down more than sixty days prior to the fire and was watered about once a week.
One test tree that was watered weekly to mimic the condition of the Pyles' tree ignited in five seconds and reached its peak burning rate in 35 seconds, according to the report. Another tree that was watered weekly ignited in 30 seconds and reached its peak burning rate in 44 seconds.
A tree that was watered continously over the previous six weeks didn't ignite for 7 minutes. It eventually self-extinguished.
"If (the Pyles') tree would have been watered on a daily basis it would have made a significant difference," Cheplak said.
Cheplak said furniture and gas in the Great Room of the Pyles' home on Jan. 19 most likely ignited within a minute as temperatures from the Christmas tree fire reached upward of 1000 degrees Celcius.
The blaze quickly "went from being a fire in a room to a room that was on fire," he said.
One breath in those conditions would have been enough to overcome the family, fire officials said.
"It looked like the time just worked against them," Davies said.
As many as 15 strands of Christmas lights were plugged into the power strip that was plugged into the floor outlet. The power strip and outlet were covered by a plastic sheet and blanket, which served as the tree skirt.
Watering of the tree may have introduced moisture to areas under the tree and outside the water pan, increasing the possibility of corrosion and resulting in high resistance connections in the outlet, the report states. The continuous electrical draw of the lights, coupled with the high resistance connections, resulted in the heat that caused the fire, the report said.
The tree and a 7-foot Douglas fir in the bar area of the home were scheduled to be removed a day after the fire.
The final report was anticipated to be released this spring. Fires set during the unrest in Baltimore, however, delayed its release as investigators focused their attention on the incidents in Baltimore.
The Childs Point Road fire is the county's deadliest since 11 people died following a fire during an oyster roast in Brooklyn Park in 1956. There have been 10 fire fatalities in the county so far this year.