There are new details on the tragic fire that killed a family of three in Duluth's Lincoln Park neighborhood have been released by Fire Officials.

The origin of the fire has been released as LeAnn Wallace reports.

Fire officials say the fire started behind a wall in the kitchen...and they believe the fire was burning between two and four hours before authorities arrived on the scene.

Fire officials ruled the fire an accident.

Autopsy results show that 32–year old Heather Johnson, her 4–year–old son Kaiden, and 37–year–old Adrian Carter all died of smoke inhalation.

Arson Investigator Jim Christensen described what the first person on the scene saw.

"He could hear the alarms sounding on the 2nd and 3rd floor. He did what is normal: to pound on doors and knock on windows. He actually went into one of the doors and it was so thick and heavy with smoke he could not enter, even though he tried — which is a very dangerous thing to do."

Officials say there were three fire detectors on the first floor of the house, two with no batteries, and the third detector was a hard–wire alarm without battery back–up.

Christensen says he believes Adrian to have originally been sleeping in the bedroom, before trying to escape.

Officials say Adrian and Heather were both found in the living room and 4–year–old Kaiden was found in what is thought to be his bedroom.
Duluth Fire Marshal Erik Simonson says there is one thing we can all learn from this tragedy.

"Smoke detectors save lives. Maintaining those smoke detectors in an operable condition is extremely important. Servicing batteries regularly, not removing batteries for nuisance alarms or low battery situations. Time and time and time again the fire fatalities that we see often times the smoke detectors are not present or they're disabled."

Fire officials say that everyone, including renters, to make sure those alarms are in safe working condition.

Authorities are waiting for results of lab tests before they release that final finding.

They also said that the apartment was overdue for a safety inspection...but that inspection would not have revealed the source of this fire.