In her first televised interview since her parents and three daughters were killed in a Christmas day inferno that engulfed her waterfront Stamford home, Madonna Badger told NBC's Matt Lauer that -- contrary to the findings of the Stamford fire marshal's office -- she did not believe the blaze was caused by smoldering fireplace embers.
Badger, a New York City advertising executive, told Lauer on NBC's "Today" that she doesn't blame the fire on her friend, contractor Michael Borcina, who told investigators he cleaned out fireplace embers and placed them in a bag in an adjacent mudroom before he and Badger went to bed early Christmas morning.
The interview was broadcast two weeks after David Cohen, state's attorney for the Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District, announced that no criminal charges would be filed in the investigation.
Badger and her estranged husband, Matthew Badger, have both filed paperwork indicating they intend to sue the city because officials ordered the home at 2267 Shippan Ave. to be torn down.
Matthew Badger held an event at a theater in Times Square Thursday night to raise money for a charity he started in honor of his daughters.
Badger described the nightmarish scene that followed, in which she climbed out a second-story window and onto adjacent scaffolding before trying in vain to save her daughters.
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