IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Cigarette Blamed for Fire That Killed 4

Fire officials blame a smoldering cigarette for a fire that killed a suburban family of four. Ironically, Ernest Troutman, 22, and his wife, Brenda, 22, had taken down the smoke detector from their upstairs hallway just a few days earlier and had failed to put it back, said Sacramento County Fire Marshal Michael Dobson. The couple and their sons, John, 4, and Steve, 22 months, were asleep when fire broke out in a living room chair of their two-story apartment in Rancho Cordova. “They never had a chance,” Dobson said.