Cambridge Apartments fire deemed unintentional

5/4/2001

A three-alarm blaze that caused about $600,000 damage to the Cambridge Apartments, 431 West Bancroft St., last month was not set intentionally, Toledo fire officials said yesterday.

The cause of the fire April 25 in the building at the apartment complex known as Bancroft Court is undetermined. It started in an enclosed floor space between rooms 304 and 404, said Denis Bembenek, of the fire investigation unit.

Thirty-one people were displaced from the four-story structure after the fire, which investigators initially labeled as suspicious. The Toledo fire department requested representatives of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and the state fire marshal's office to assist in its investigation.

The fire was the second within a month at one of Bancroft Court's six apartment buildings. A fire caused about $40,000 damage to an adjacent four-story building, Oxford Apartments, 435 West Bancroft, on March 25. Fire officials think that blaze was set deliberately.