Madonna Badger lost her 3 kids and her parents on a Christmas Day fire at her Connecticut home. Badger, along with her boyfriend were the only two survivors of the mystery fire. No one is actually sure what caused it, only that Madonna's three kids and Madonna's parents were unable to escape and died in the flames.
Madonna Badger is a an art consultant who previously worked for Calvin Klein and dreamed up the Mark Wahlberg underwear line photos. Her boyfriend is the man who was renovating her almost $2M house. Her husband, who she filed for divorce from in October was apparently devastated at hearing the news. Madonna's father was the Santa at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York and had worked there as recently as Saturday in what he called his dream job.
At this point I have not heard any causes or reasons for the fire or how the mom and boyfriend were the only two to escape. I am really interested to see what the cause of the fire is and how no one else escaped.
This sounds suspicious. The poor dad.
ReplyDeleteHer boyfriend is renovating the home? Uh oh. (Might have been an accident -- renovations are how Barry Gibbs sent up in flames his Nashville-area house once owned by Johnny Cash.)
ReplyDeleteNo smoke detectors? How absolutely horrible.
ReplyDeleteAwful, I can't even imagine loosing all the people you love most in a flash...
ReplyDeleteWell looks like the mom & BF were prolly sleeping on the first floor vs upstairs where the deaths occurred(from what the pix seem to indicate) Hmmm maybe the fire was due to one of those space heaters?? Hope not cause you always hear stories about them being faulty. So damn sad.
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely horrifying! Can you imagine losing your children to a fire? I don't know how I'll be able to maintain my sanity if this ever happens to me.
ReplyDeleteknock on wood 3 times.
Wish her the best, and hope the New Year will bring her in the long run some sort of closure and peace of mind.
After seeing this here I just read several articles on this -- the only other footnote I picked up in one was that the power had been out in the neighborhood. It really could have been some sort of backup heating (or actual fireplace or candle fire) as the source and then renovations materials might have exacerbated it. Oh so awful.
ReplyDeleteWhat a horrible tragedy. This breaks my heart.
ReplyDeletebeing Christmas Eve, I'd say a candle was accidentally left burning.
ReplyDeletePoor woman. I can't even imagine losing both parents and children.
This is really sad, especially happening on Christmas Day. I feel for her.
ReplyDeleteI don't think anything nefarious happened, just an awful tragedy. It's likely, since renovations were going on, that paint cans or varnishes would have been inside the house, acting as accelerants, there would be exposed walls (wooden studs/no drywall) that might have made it easier for the fire to spread, etc. Also, old wooden houses can be firetraps. I don't think this was arson.
ReplyDeleteCannot even begin to imagine the grief the survivors or father must feel.
ReplyDeletesometimes a smoke detector serves only to alert people there is smoke/fire....it doesn't mean that everyone magically gets out safely.
ReplyDeleteHow horrible. I wouldn't think, that in a house done or nearly done ( GMA reported in had recently been renovated) & at Christmas- surely there ween't cans of stain sitting in the hallway. I am assuming that this wasn't a do it yourself project- maybe the boyfriend was in charge of the ENTIRE house being redone, but he wasn't the one who did all the work himself...
I wouldn't be able to live with myself- the guilt of surviving would eat me alive.
i first thought 'uh oh', but this is a huge house. likely the kids and parents were in upstairs bedrooms and there was simply no way to get up there without dying yourself. i think it's probably just that simple.
ReplyDeleteWhat a horrible tragedy any time of year. My heart goes out to this family. Losing all your children would be more than devastating.
ReplyDeletei can't even fathom this tragedy...talk about devastating. even so tho, i can't help but think there's something shady in all this. :(
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely horrifying. I couldn't go on ... there is just no way I could recover from something like that.
ReplyDeleteThe way I read it on Yahoo, it sounded like the estranged husband was the marketing genius and the wife was cheating.
ReplyDeleteThis is not uncommon when houses are being worked on,
I hope this doesn't turn into some weird Medea Greek Tragedy.
ReplyDeleteBut it is suspicious that only the two escaped.
Actually the mom went out her upstairs bedroom window onto the roof to try to get into the kids bedroom & couldn't because of the flames - she was rescued from the roof.
ReplyDeletei saw this on yahoo, and read that the 2 surviors were in complete shock, and that one of them tried to go back in, but the house was fully engulfed. something similar happened here last week, but everyone got out. the (3k sq foot) house burned to thhe ground. like others have said, not unusual when there is construction. just horrible.
ReplyDeleteJesus, that's horrible. If I were her, I'd wish I had died in the fire too.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, the tv news didn't report the boyfriend angle- just that he was the builder, and that the fire occurred at 5 a.m. on Christmas. So yeah, I figured he was doing some extra "work" around there, but still...
ReplyDeleteSo what if the fire broke out and she tried to sneak him out before kids/parents awakened?
Oh my gosh. I can't even imagine how that woman must feel. I had a fire in my house last week and it was no picnic, but everyone got out. To lose children and parents is just beyond what I can fathom.
ReplyDeleteUgh.
If I were her I think I would just get on an iceberg and float away. How can she bear it? And her ex-husband? My sympathies to both.
ReplyDeleteThis is horrible...I an used to work for Calvin Klein in the city. I didn't know her though. My deepest condolences to this family.
ReplyDeleteThey're also saying the cause of the fire is believed to be a Yule Log.
ReplyDeletewho cares on who cheated who, or even who is to blame....this is just such a tragedy. That poor mom is probably wondering why she was left to live.
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna keep her in my prayers.
Heartbreaking. Between this and the guy that was dressed like Santa and killed all those people in TX, it made for a very depressing Christmas news day.
ReplyDeleteHorrible. It's a few days later now and they said it was embers from the fireplace fire they had put out at around 3:00 AM. Did't say what they had done with the emblers.
ReplyDeleteThey also said no-one should have been living in the house during the renovation.