According to the Fire Chief, a malfunctioning motor scooter caused a fatal Waterbury apartment fire that killed 68-year-old tenant Elias Koulis Monday.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner says the cause of the man's death is still under investigation.
Hours after hot spots were doused and the demolition began today, Waterbury Fire Chief Terrence Ballou said, while tenants of this Colley Street apartment building were fixing a scooter behind the building Monday when the scooter ignited and the fire spread quickly, killing Koulis, in his apartment.
"I woke up, I felt intense heat in my bedroom, I looked out the window and saw red," said the owner of a two-family house next to the 12 unit apartment building.
For 40 years, this man, who asked that he not be identified, owned and lived in the two-family house, which burned to the ground.