House fire investigation continuing

The Bloomington Fire Department is not speculating on the cause of an off-campus house fire Saturday morning that left three IU students dead and one injured, according to BFD Chief Jeff Barlow.\n"Our job as a fire department is not to have an opinion, but to have the facts," Barlow said.\nThe investigation, headed by the BFD, has been ongoing since Saturday morning immediately following the evacuation of the house and the extinguishing of the fire. Barlow said the investigation is moving slowly because the department has had to delay for the "right people" to arrive to the scene so all the evidence is presented.\nThe department is working in conjunction with private investigators, according to Barlow. \nShand Forensic Investigators, Inc., was on the scene today.\nInvestigators were at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis yesterday, where lone survivor Paul Dayment, a 21-year-old IU junior, is recovering.\nBarlow said the BFD could neither confirm nor deny the information released to the Indiana Daily Student by the State Fire Marshal's office yesterday.\nPam Bright, spokeswoman from the State Fire Marshal's office, told the IDS yesterday that the cause was an accidental electrical fire. According to the State Fire Marshal's office, the fire began in the first-floor living room of the two-story house in an area where many electrical appliances had been plugged in.\nBarlow said the department didn't want "bits and pieces" of information pertaining to their investigation to be released out of respect for the grieving families.