Fire investigator reveals cause of Reed’s Dairy fire as in-wall space heater
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – We now know the cause of the fire that destroyed the multi-generation family milk barn at Reed's Dairy.
According to Idaho Falls fire investigator, Jim Newton, the Reed's Dairy fire has been ruled an accident.
"We're placing the cause as one of those in-wall cub cadet-type space heaters. And it had material that was just kind of shifted up against it and it just slowly heated that up and caused auto ignition," Newton said.
Dairy owner Alan Reed told Local News 8 earlier this week his insurance company had told him the cause was undetermined. "It was back in a room, kind of. There was a changing room and another room with some equipment in it," Reed said. "It started right in an area somewhere. I mean, we can't pinpoint the exact spot, but we know where the guys found the smoke and flames at the first," he said.
Nobody ever told Reed or anyone at Reed's Dairy how the fire started. The first time Reed heard was when we called him to let him know.
“What we were told by the insurance company is the cause was undetermined. That's kind of strange,” Reed said.
According to Newton, their investigation is all public record, but insurance companies are not held to the same standard.
They said insurance investigators were on the scene during the investigation. “Insurance came out and they have a lot of the big guns behind them in terms of helping out with some funding, with getting some tests done, for both electrical test, everything else, the electrical engineer comes out, Newton said. “And so we'll work in tandem with them. So, on bigger fires, we usually generally work with the insurance agent.”
The question remains, why did nobody feel the need to contact the family and tell them how the fire started? It may be because it's not part of the procedure or are insurance companies not required to?
In full transparency, when we spoke with the Idaho Falls Fire Department they seemed genuinely surprised that Reed didn't know.
You can watch Jim Newton's full interview below.
