by Stephanie Gaskell
An overheated electrical junction box caused a deadly seven-alarm fire in Chinatown last month, officials said Thursday.
Fire marshals said the metal box, which connected the electrical cables that fed power to the building, was fixed into the rear of the first floor at 283 Grand St. on the night of April 11.
Sparks or heat from the small box ignited a fire, which then quickly spread to apartments on the five floors above. Resident Sing Ho, 87, was killed and 30 firefighters and EMTs were injured.
Three other residents were also injured. More than 200 residents of several buildings on Grand St. had to seek emergency shelter after the blaze tore through an entire city block.
Marshals said the junction box was located in what appeared to be a storage area of a 99-cent store on the first floor of the century-old building.
Fire officials said they determined the cause by conducting several interviews with residents and "a painstaking forensic examination" of the building.
They focused their attention on the junction box after noticing melted copper wire feeding out of it.
Copper wire typically only melts because of a problem, such as a short, within the box and not as the result of an external flame, officials said.
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