The charred can was found near the electrical control panel of 86-year-old Anna Tolston's bed, which showed indications of electrical malfunction, recently released reports on the fire at NHC HealthCare Center show. Her bed was the focus of a probe by investigators.
Seven women residents died in the fire Sept. 25, and eight others died in the following weeks. The nursing home did not have a sprinkler system.
The cause of the fire has never been officially determined by investigators.
Ken Giles, a spokesman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said aerosol cans can explode when exposed to temperatures above 120 degrees.
``If the temperature is raised over 120 degrees, the can could rupture and the contents could escape,'' Giles said. ``And it's the ingredients of the can that are flammable.''
The reports say the can was too charred to determine what it contained.
Citing a judge's order limiting public statements due to pending lawsuits in the case, investigators have little to say about the fire. The investigation was closed in June.
Metro Nashville investigators have said the can's role in the fire was inconclusive. It was found under the right side of Tolston's upper body _ the area where the most severe fire damage on Tolston and her bed were found, according to a state fire marshal's report.
The bed's electric control panel was wrapped around the bed rail, according to the report. Although signs of an electrical malfunction were found in the same area as the aerosol can, there are no reports describing what role this combination possibly played in the fire.
It also is not clear whether the can was under Tolston when the fire began, or exploded during the fire and landed there.
Burn patterns in the room led state investigators to conclude the fire started in the area at the head of Tolston's bed or the chair next to it. An electrical cord was found tangled in the springs of the chair.
A Georgia lab examined Tolston's bed and all electrical components gathered from the room. In March, the lab reported that ``in all likelihood'' the bed and its wiring didn't cause the fire, but it did not say conclusively that they had not.
Patrick Kennedy, chairman of the National Association of Fire Investigators, has been a fire investigator for 43 years. He applauded investigators for saying they don't know what caused the fire, rather than trying to guess.
``Every time there's a lawsuit filed after a fire, you usually have two experts called in to give different accounts of what happened,'' he said. ``One of them is always wrong, and frequently they're both wrong.''
The challenge in fire investigations is that most of the evidence is severely charred and damaged or burned completely, he said. The key piece of evidence to explain a fire is often destroyed during the blaze, Kennedy said.
Information from: The Tennessean
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