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Funeral Home Again Under Investigation After Fire

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

A funeral home is under investigation again, this time for a fire. The state is trying to figure out if it was intentional.

The home in question, Marvin C. Zanders Funeral Home, is already being investigated for improper care of bodies following a Channel 9 investigation.

The state agency that regulates funeral homes said their investigation is ongoing, so they couldn't give details. They did say they were at the scene of the questionable fire, where the dogs showed up and sniffed out some kind of accelerant.

The special dogs were brought in to try and sniff out accelerants, and they did. The detective with the Fire Marshal's Office said the dogs found something.

"Two samples were taken from the scene for analysis," said Detective Bill Newman, State Fire Marshal's Office.

But since the fire broke out in the linen closet in the funeral director's living quarters, connected to the funeral home, and there were cleaning supplies in there, the detective said that could have had something to do with it. The actual funeral home did not suffer any major damage and the owner said he can continue operating.

"The issue to me, getting my place and getting ready for services tomorrow," Marvin Zanders said.

As services continue, so will the Fire Marshal’s investigation. The Department of Financial Services, which regulates funeral homes, has added the fire to the already ongoing investigation into the home.

That investigation started after Channel 9 aired a special report that uncovered decomposing bodies improperly stored in an open air shed just two months ago. Now, inspectors want to know if the fire was intentionally set or just an accident.

The owners said he didn't know how it happened and he wasn't there at 2:30 in the morning when it broke out. As far as he is concerned, it's business as usual.

"I'm not gonna leave my place. I'll stay here. When I die, I'll die here. They'll take me out of here to the cemetery," Zanders said.

It will be ten days before the results of the accelerants the dogs found are back. There were bodies inside when the fire broke out. They were fine. Some were relocated to other funeral homes.

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