The homeowner said that the family left for the day, and when the children returned from school they found the house full of smoke. They did not go in. They closed the door and went to a neighbor's house to call the fire department and their parents.

The fire department arrived and found a smoldering fire in the kitchen. The fire crew reported the fire damage is limited to a section of the kitchen. The other rooms in the house only have smoke damage.

The house had plenty of fuel, so it appears that the fire ran out of oxygen with the doors and windows closed.

The heating element is embedded in melted plastic. The coffee maker appears to have been plugged in. The homeowner told you they had a busy morning but did make a pot of coffee.

It was determined that the power switch on the coffee maker was in the “on” position. The coffeemaker was an older model without thermal overheat protection.

The handle from the coffee carafe appears to be melted off due to high heat transfer. There is heavy soot deposited on the glass. Some discoloration of the glass is observed.

Char and soot are visible on the outlet. There are wires still plugged into it. The investigator checked the circuit breaker, and determined it did "trip", shutting off the power to the outlet. We cannot know when the outlet tripped.

X-ray from the lab showed that the wire connections appear ok. This is evidence that no electrical arcing occurred.

A toaster is directly plugged in to a wall outlet. Soot is deposited on the outside of the metal toaster. The metal has bent from exposure to heat.

Power switch was in the "off" position.

There are some burned potato chips and a piece of the potato chip bag on the counter. The rest of the chips and bag were likely converted to fuel. The counter under the bag is protected from damage due to heat transfer. The homeowner tells you that there were potato chips stored in the cabinet above.

There is a large melted mass of plastic plugged into the outlet – it turns out to be a wireless switch. It looks like an appliance was plugged into it.

Undetermined whether it was "on" or "off" so we cannot tell if power was running to any connected appliances.

There is no evidence of heat transfer on the lower cabinets. All damage appears to be on the counter or above. Heavy soot and char are visible deep into the countertop.

There is a visible pattern of damage. The amount and depth of char increase as you move toward the corner.

The wall cabinet has been burned so much that it collapsed. The damage suggests high amounts of heat transfer to the cabinet and that it was consumed as fuel.

There is a V-shaped pattern on the wall. Soot and ash are left on the wall around where the cabinet was located. It appears to show where the smoke traveled.

There is a melted clock on the gas range. Note that it got hot enough to melt, but did not burn.

This is a gas stove. The stove is metal. Knobs on the gas range are in the off position.There is no soot deposited on the surrounding metal.

A horizontal line of soot appears on the cabinet. This is the thermal layer.

The countertop to the right above the stove does not have any visible char or damage. There is also very little soot on the counter.

There is a visible pattern of damage. The amount of soot deposited on the wall appears to increase as you move closer to the corner.

A protected area is visible when you remove the coffee maker remains. No heat was transferred to this area.