The cause of the fire that killed a 77-year-old Scranton man and displaced four neighbors Saturday will probably never be known, the city's fire chief said Monday.
The fire collapsed the Dartmouth Street home where John G. Kollra lived alone, making pinpointing the cause almost impossible, Chief John Judge.
Kollra, who lived at 1338 Dartmouth St., died of burns and smoke inhalation, Lackawanna County Coroner Tim Rowland determined.
No one else was injured, Judge said.
'It collapsed'
The fire was reported at 6:05 p.m. Arriving firefighters encountered heavy fire.
“It was well involved, the entire house,” Judge said. “It was already starting to catch the two houses next to it on fire when our crews initially arrived. And then shortly after they arrived, it (1338) collapsed.”
Firefighters needed about two hours to get the fire under control. Radiating heat set a double-block home at 1334-1336 Dartmouth and a single-family home at 1342 on fire, too, the chief said.
The single-family home suffered major damage. The American Red Cross helped its lone resident find shelter.
The double-block also had major damage, including a collapsed roof.
“Three adults were displaced,” Judge said. “They’re with family and helped by Red Cross as well.”
Kollra’s home “collapsed into the foundation,” the chief said.
“I highly doubt we'll ever know what happened, he said. “There's just too much damage."
"Whatever evidence we could have found has been consumed by the fire. That's always our challenge, and our investigators' challenge is trying to put something together, you know, a hypothesis, and then proving it," Judge said. "It's not an easy task.”
