Madonna Badger: Embers didn't cause fire

In her first televised interview since her parents and three daughters were killed in a Christmas day inferno in Stamford, Madonna Badger told NBC's Matt Lauer that -- contrary to the findings of the Stamford fire marshal's office -- the blaze that consumed Badger's Shippan Avenue home was not caused by smoldering fireplace embers.

Badger, a respected New York City advertising executive, told Lauer on NBC's Today show that she doesn't blame the fire on her friend, contractor Michael Borcina, who told investigators he had cleaned out fireplace embers and placed them in a bag before he and Badger went to bed early Christmas morning.

Borcina had run his hands through the ashes to make sure they weren't smoldering -- a factor that made Badger think the ashes posed no danger as the two went to bed.

She even told Lauer that she glanced down at the bag of embers on her way up to bed and wondered if the bag should have been further removed from the house. But recalling that Borcina had run his hands through the embers, she deemed the bag safe and went to bed.

About an hour later, the house was engulfed in flames and her three daughters -- 9-year-old Lily and 7-year-old twins Sarah and Grace -- were dead, along with her parents, Lomer and Pauline Johnson of Southbury.

"I don't believe that the ashes started the fire," she told Lauer.

"The wind blew ashes out onto ! the hear th, and so we were cleaning up," Badger said. "I watched him take them with his hand, the shovel, and put `em into the bag. And then take his -- I watched him put his hands in the bag ... to make sure that there's nothing on fire in the bag."

Badger also disputed a report by the Associated Press that the embers had been removed from the fire place because of concerns her daughters had about Santa getting burned while coming down the chimney.