by KYW's Brad Segall

Investigators say it was a construction worker’s torch that ignited the eight-alarm fire last week that left several hundred people homeless at the Riverwalk at Millenium apartment complex in Conshohocken, Pa.
 
Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman (file photo at right) says workers were using a high-intensity acetylene torch to do some work at the Millenium Stables construction site adjacent to the four-building apartment complex:

"There were some very small steel beams installed that were designed to anchor cement balconies. The beams did not come very far out but they incorrectly installed and had to be removed before construction could proceed.”

Ferman says those torches throw off hot sparks and molten metal known as slag and she says pieces of the hot slag can find their way into cracks and crevices. She says the workers finished up around 2:30, left and came back about an hour later, seeing no problems, they left for the day. About an hour later, the fire was reported.

She calls the fire accidental but as to whether the workers did anything wrong, she says that’s someone else’s call (see related story).