Fire Officials: Stamford Home Lacked Smoke Detectors

The at 2267 Shippan Ave. that took the lives of five people may have a lasting effect upon several communities as the victims are remembered.

Stamford's team of fire investigators have stated that the mansion at 2267 Shippan Ave. did not have an operational smoke detector system, and the second floor of the home was lacking building certificates, according to News 12. 

Fire officials also stated that the original "balloon" construction of the home might have allowed the fire to spread faster.

During a at the , Mayor Michael Pavia suggested that 2267 Shippan was the first job that Madonna Badger's boyfriend Michael Borcina, 52, performed in Stamford as a licensed building contractor.

"If you look at the inspection chronology and the inspection reports, that's probably the only job that he's conducted in the city of Stamford, but all of his procedures were correct. He had inspections in a timely fashion, he called them in when required, and he did this between the rough inspection and the final inspection," Pavia said.

Borcina was released from on Wednesday morning, having suffered from smoke inhalation and a knee injury.

During Tuesday's press conference, local fire officials made it clear that while renovations were being done in many different areas of the home, the second floor was still going through a lengthy phase of inspections and could not be legally occupied. Fire officials were not clear if the second floor was being occupied by at the time of the fire.

The staff of White Plains, N.Y.'s , where the three child fatalities , are already preparing to counsel students when they return on Jan. 6. The deaths of Lily Badger, 10, and 7-year-old twins Grace and Sarah caused school staff members to meet at school during winter vacation and discussed their feelings about the incident and how they would address it with their students. 

The Heritage Village residential area in Southbury, CT mourns for Lomer and Pauline Johnson. Acting Fire Chief Antonio Conte confirmed earlier this week that Lomer died while trying to get at least one of his grandchildren out of the burning home from a window on the second floor.

"The grandfather made it to the back of the house. He obviously found one of the young children, because he guided her to the window that he went through. When he stepped through that window, his life ended," Conte said. "...He fell face-forward, because that is the position we had found him in, and then we found the little girl, just inside that structure, just inside that window."

A Heritage Village neighbor of the Johnsons,' Leo Ditkoff, remembered the last time he saw Lomer Johnson in an article by .

“I sat right next to Lomer just last week,” he said. “I didn’t know him well, but when he sat down I looked at his big white beard and told him he should play Santa Claus. He looked back at me and said ‘Ho, Ho, Ho, I do.”

According to a report by the NY Daily News, Johnson felt that his job as a mall Santa was the best job he'd ever had, and mall staff referred to Johnson as simply a "great guy."

Mayor Pavia also confirmed that some of the fire and police rescue personnel at 2267 Shippan Ave. will go through post-traumatic counseling.

"After 38 years on the job, you're never prepared for anything like this," Conte said. "I had to recall seventy firefighters for debriefing, and most of them broke down...our job is to rescue people when they're in danger. You feel like when you don't make that rescue, you fail."

Stamford's Red Cross supplied rescue personnel with canteens and food for the entirety of Dec. 25.

"I had the task to find food for our canteening efforts on a day when most local restaurants were closed," Red Cross volunteer Angela Malizia told Patch. "I was hopeful to see the open sign lit up on the front window of . They did not hesitate to help as soon as I walked in and told them what was happening just a few blocks away. The owners and customers went above and beyond with the immediate action of cooking and donating of the food, loading my car and giving comforting assurance that we had a place we could rely on if we needed anything else."

Stamford government officials have not commented on the status or location of Madonna Badger, homeowner, one of two survivors, mother to the three girls killed in the tragedy, and daughter to Lomer and Pauline Johnson.