Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, December 30, 1994                   TAG: 9412300138
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

OLD WIRING CAUSED FIRE

``We found nothing to indicate that this was anything but an accident,'' said Franklin County Fire Marshal Bennie Russell.

State police helped investigate the Dec. 21 fire that killed Cynthia Barton and three of her children. Barton's 16-year-old daughter, Cristina Pruitt, was severely burned in the fire.

Barton's boyfriend, Don Quackenbush, and his son, Don Jr., were the only people to escape the fire uninjured.

After reassembling the fireplace hearth, investigators determined that the blaze wasn't, as earlier suspected, caused by a wood stove. Instead, they discovered that wiring in the living room had generated heat and set the walls on fire.

Russell said no one is to blame for the faulty wiring.

``Age is the bottom line,'' he said.