JOHN S. FORRESTER
The Boston Globe

An electrical fire is being considered as the possible cause of a blaze in Springfield on Saturday morning that left two siblings dead and two hospitalized, a city fire official said yesterday.

Spokesman Dennis Leger said the department's Arson and Bomb Squad is focusing on a junction box located in the basement ceiling of the Bay Street home as the possible starting place.

Massachusetts Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan said that ``several scenarios'' are being looked at as the possible cause. He said it did not appear that the fire was of suspicious origin.

The Arson and Bomb Squad investigates all structural fires in Springfield. State Police attached to the state fire marshal's office are also investigating.

Springfield officials said the one-alarm fire appeared to have started in the basement and spread upward. When firefighters arrived about 8:20 a.m., they found the children and their mother, Melissa Bell, sleeping. The bodies of Marshall Wood Jr., 17, and his brother Malik Bell, 4, were found in their bedrooms.

Two other siblings were taken to hospitals with facial burns. Jakaria Bell, 9, was still listed in critical condition at Massachusetts General Hospital around 1 p.m. yesterday, according to hospital spokeswoman Lynn Dale. Another sister, Jasayah Bell, 14, was treated at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield before being transferred to another hospital, a Baystate spokesperson said yesterday.

The mother was treated at Baystate and released. The children's father, Tony Bell, was not at home when the fire occurred.

Police said the couple has five other children. They are now staying with relatives in Springfield while the parents attend to the two girls in the hospital, according to Brenda Brouillette, director of Disaster Services for the Pioneer Valley chapter of the American Red Cross.

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June 29, 2009