Official: Fireworks, cigarettes may have caused deadly blaze

CHICAGO (AP) — Investigators seeking the cause of Chicago's deadliest fire in well over a decade were searching the porch area where the blaze started for evidence of fireworks, cigarettes or other smoking materials, a fire official said Monday.

Fire department spokesman Larry Langford said children had been known to have set off fireworks from the porch of the Southwest Side apartment that caught fire before dawn on Sunday, killing six children and two adults and leaving a boy and a man in "very" critical condition. People had also used the spot to smoke cigarettes, he said.