Causes of Recent Fatal Buffalo, NY House Fires Still Unknown

Jan. 17—Twice in six months, early morning fires that ripped through homes in Buffalo left those families and the larger community mourning a terrible loss of life.

The first, on the Fourth of July, killed a widely admired local physician and two of his daughters. The second, on New Year's Eve, left five children, all 10 years old or younger, dead.

In both cases, Buffalo fire investigators have determined the fires were accidental.

But they have not determined precisely why the fires began.

"Investigators put in a lot of hours, a lot of time," Fire Commissioner William Renaldo said in a recent interview about the July 4 fire. "It's a very tragic event and we want to get some closure. We want to get closure for his family, want to get closure for the public."

It's often more straightforward to confirm, or rule out, whether a fire was intentionally set, experts said.

But it can be more difficult to pin down the specific cause of an accidental fire, particularly one so damaging.

This leaves those who knew and cared about the fire victims searching for answers.

"A lot of people were hurting," Kathy Diina, who lived across the street from the family of Dr. Jonathan Daniels for about 25 years, said of their neighborhood.

The two devastating fires struck homes located about 1 1/2 miles apart.

The July 4, 2022, fire was reported just after 3:30 a.m. at 194 Huntington Ave., between Parker and Voorhees avenues, in the Central Park neighborhood.

Dr. Jonathan Daniels, one of three Black male pediatricians practicing in Buffalo, died along with his daughters Jordan, 27, and Jensen, 23.

His wife, Janessa Givens Daniels, was able to get out of the home on her own and was taken to Erie County Medical Center for treatment of smoke inhalation.

Another daughter, Jillian, wasn't home at the time. A dog also died in the fire.

News of the deaths of Daniels and his daughters brought an outpouring of grief from the local medical community.

Daniels, 53, practiced at Main Pediatrics for 19 years before he was recruited in 2021 to start the pediatric clinic at Urban Family Practice on Jefferson Avenue.

He also served as associate dean of admissions at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, where he recruited students from underrepresented backgrounds.

A tribute to Daniels, published in November by UB, highlighted his dedication to diversifying the medical field and to supporting students of color.

"This is my 42nd year in pastoral ministries, and I'm telling you I don't meet a lot of Jonathan Danielses. They just don't exist," the Rev. Kinzer M. Pointer, pastor of Liberty Missionary Baptist Church and a leader of the African American Health Equity Task Force, told UB. "And that is not an indictment of us as much as it is an acknowledgement of who Dr. Daniels was."

Initially, officials said they believed the blaze started on the second floor of the Daniels' home before spreading to the attic.

At one point or another, the homeowners' insurance company, the city and the Daniels family all had their own investigators looking into the cause.

Buffalo fire investigators were able to rule out arson, Renaldo said recently. Investigators are looking at malfunctioning electrical, mechanical or heating and cooling systems as a potential cause, he said, including window air-conditioning units in use in the home.

There were smoke detectors and they were in working order, Renaldo said.

He was asked whether, given the amount of time that's passed, it's possible the precise cause won't ever be known.

"We're hoping that's not the case here," Renaldo said. "But there are fires like this, similar to this, that are very difficult to determine."

The intensity of the fire is one reason, the fire commissioner said.

"A lot of physical evidence was destroyed, which made it even more difficult to come to the exact cause," he said.

The investigation into the fire on Dartmouth Avenue, off Bailey Avenue in the University Heights neighborhood, is at an earlier stage.

Clarence and Lisa Liggans lived in the home with two of their adult children and six grandchildren, all siblings.

The fire was reported around 7:30 a.m. Dec. 31, when Clarence Liggans was delivering newspapers for The Buffalo News. The two adult children were able to escape and Lisa Liggans managed to carry out her youngest grandchild, 8-month-old Ziyah Robinson.

The baby suffered minor smoke inhalation while Lisa Liggans was seriously burned and, as of late last week, remained at ECMC's burn unit.

Firefighters got to the other children. Three of them died at the scene: Aniyah Green, 10; Joelle Liggans, 8; and Jalissa Liggans, 7.

Two others were taken to Oishei Children's Hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries: Denise Keith, 4, and Nehemiah Robinson, 2.

"There are no words," Patricia Montgomery, great aunt to the five children, recently told The News.

The probe into the fire continues as officials wait to interview other witnesses, Renaldo said at a news conference last week.

"We're not 100% (sure) what caused the fire. We know it's accidental because we ruled out all the other causes," he said. "But we don't know actually what was ignited at this time yet."

Over the course of investigating fires like these, officials will examine evidence and conduct interviews with neighbors and fire survivors to rule out as many potential causes as they can, said Sal Colangelo, former chief of the city's fire marshal's office, who now performs this work in the private sector.

Cigarettes, burning candles, malfunctioning hot water tanks or furnaces, lightning strikes and electrical failures all can spark a house fire, he said, and all leave telltale signs.

"So you start eliminating all that stuff. And then you narrow it down to the area of origin. Where you determine, 'The fire started here,' and then you see what's in that area that would cause it," Colangelo said.

Unfortunately, he said, sometimes investigations do reach the point where the fire's cause must be listed as "undetermined."

Givens Daniels, a UB administrator, and her surviving daughter, Jillian Daniels, did not respond to messages seeking comment. Their attorney, John Elmore, declined comment on their behalf.

The Daniels' fire-damaged home was torn down around October. Neighbors had expressed safety concerns about its continued presence, but Renaldo said Buffalo fire investigators wanted to collect as much evidence as possible before it was demolished.

The empty lot where the home once stood is now covered with straw. On a recent visit, a small, solar-powered cross stood along the sidewalk and bouquets of flowers rested at the base of a tree.

"They were wonderful neighbors," said Diina, the Daniels' neighbor.

"All summer long, my porch was open for counseling," she said of the informal gatherings that replaced typical neighborhood parties. "Nobody celebrated the whole summer. It was that disturbing."

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