Fire Marshal says

A funeral fire in East Greenwich was considered an “accident”.

The Fire Marshal from Rhode Island, Tim Mclaghlin, said NBC on Monday that the funeral home and Hill-Skeffington creams started in the fireplace.

“It seems that they had a fire in the fireplace and spread the fire from () the fireplace /area (and) widespread on the roof,” McLaughlin said in an e -mail.

NBC 10 reported for the first time on Fire on Sunday.

The head of firefighters from East Greenwich, Bill Perry, said they were warned of fire at 3:58 in the morning, reaching the scene two minutes later.

Perry said that his firefighters and neighbors received the fire under control in about two hours, staying on the spot until lunch to fight the hotspots.

Perry said that the insurance of corpses inside are untouched was their priority.

He said that the bodies were moved safely, none of them was touched by the heat of the flames.

The medical examiner was on the spot at that time, but the spokesman of his office said he should not be on the spot, and the funeral was able to complete the transport without their help.

The spokesman of the medical examiner confirmed that other funeral houses in the area were able to take the bodies that were inside.

What is what remains the roof coalized and collapsed with visible damages on the outside and inside this building.

The large, white, historical building- previously known as The Hill Funeral Home- was established in the 1800s.

In a statement, the funeral president Home and the owner John Skeffington said the building will have to be demolished.

Unfortunately, the building seems to be a total loss and will be demolished in the following weeks. However, we are committed to rebuilding and we will begin to plan a state-of-the-art funeral house and a cremary facility to continue to serve families in the community with the highest level of care. Hill-Skeffington remains fully operational and dedicated to the families we serve. While our East Greenwich installation has been lost, we actively do arrangements to ensure a perfect continuation of our services. We have provided temporary office space with 700 Main Street, East Greenwich and we will use the surrounding facilities to host the services, as needed. We are also partners with other local funeral houses to give the best possible care to our families, as we have always had. At the time of the fire, there were four people in our care at East Greenwich. We want to make sure their families and the community that all have been safely transferred to our Providence location. Despite this tragic event, we remain 100% in business and we hired to support our families with compassion and professionalism. We will rebuild and return stronger than ever.

The team requires that anyone has questions or concerns, call JF Skeffington Funeral Home in Providence at 401-884-9222.