Santa Perishes in Yule Log Sparked Inferno on Christmas Morning

What terrible irony. I first heard about the loss of life in the Christmas morning blaze and thought that was bad enough. These things are terrible on any day, but Christmas fires really put a stake in my heart. Then to hear that the grandfather had been the Santa at Saks Fifth Avenue, it seemed like a cruel joke. And now to hear that the fire probably started as a result of hot embers form a yule log in the fire place just seems too sad to even be possible. Such a tragedy.

Yule log embers may have sparked fire that killed Madonna Badger's parents, 3 kids

The fatal Connecticut fire that killed a fashion-marketing exec’s three children and parents was possibly sparked by embers from disposed fireplace ashes, The Post has learned.

The ashes from the family’s Christmas Eve yule log may have been still smoldering when they were left outside the 100-year-old, $1.7 million, Long Island Sound-view Victorian, said a source.

The wind may have blown the embers into the old, wooden building, sparking the blaze.

The already tragic story took another heartbreaking twist today as details emerged about how the oldest victim, Lomer Johnson, of Southbury, Conn. — a retiree who worked as jolly St. Nick — tried in vain to save his granddaughter.

"He had the little girl with him," Stamford Fire Chief Antonio Conte told reporters yesterday.

Johnson, 71, was outside, face down on a small, jutting roof. The child was just inside the window.

"I think he had his granddaughter and he tried to get her out," the chief said.

It was not clear which of the three little girls who perished in the flames he'd been trying to rescue.

Johnson and his wife, Pauline, were staying in the turreted, under-renovation home visiting their daughter, former Calvin Klein art director Madonna Badger, and Badger’s three daughters, 10-year-old Lily and 7-year-old twins Sarah and Grace.

The other two girls were found on the second floor, one floor down from all their bedrooms, the chief told reporters.

Pauline, the grandmother, was found on a staircase hallway between the second and third floors.

Of the seven in the house, only Badger, a founding partner at the top-tier branding firm Badger & Winters, and her companion, contractor Michael Borcina, survived the 5 a.m. blaze.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/conn_house_where_died_in_fire_is_9L1w0pmo2b5XztIYVOWWQI