MONAVILLE — State fire marshals are still investigating a house fire at Monaville that killed a mother, her three children and her boyfriend last Thursday morning.

State Fire Marshal Lead Investigator Paul Gill said yesterday that four fire marshals and an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms-certified investigator will be combing the scene of the fire over the next few days for clues to what caused the tragedy.

“We have a very good scene and the fire department did an excellent job getting it nailed down,” Gill said. “The cause is not just dropping out.”

Gill said he would estimate the home was at least 85 years old. Two reports to The Logan Banner said the home was nearly 100 years old and that it was part of the Monahill Complex owned by Omar Mining, which was a subsidiary of the Colane Corporation.

Gill said the deaths of the five people were the “worst loss of life in a single dwelling” that he’d seen in his 30 years of experience investigating fires.

Gill also asked that anyone with any information about the fire call the arson hotline at 1-800-233-FIRE (1-800-233-3473).

“Anybody who passed by that morning on their way to work (who saw the fire) should call that number or call the Logan City Fire Department (at 752-2777) because we need all the information we can get,” Gill said.

Killed in the fire were 30-year-old Melinda Daley; her daughter, 11-year-old Kaitlyn; a 9-year-old son, Randy; and her youngest son, Trey, 2. Melinda Daley’s boyfriend, Dewayne Ellis, was also killed in the fire.

According to reports to The Logan Banner, the victims’ bodies are still at the medical examiner’s office in Charleston.

A report on www.wsaz.com said a fire chief at the scene said there were no working smoke detectors in the home. A source at the scene said that all the bodies were found on the first floor near the front of the house.

A resident of the area who was on the scene Thursday morning said he estimated the old coal camp boss’s house, built by Island Creek Coal and later owned by Carlos Lopes, could have been built in the early 1900s and was at least 60 years old.

The call to Logan firefighters came in at 5:03 a.m. Thursday and, according to Logan Fire Chief Scott Beckett, the house had fire venting from the roof by the time his crews and the Main Island Creek Fire Department firemen arrived on the scene.

“When we got there, fire was venting through the roof and the front,” Beckett said Thursday morning as he and the firefighters were leaving the scene. “It was about 30 minutes into the fire before we could confirm anyone was in there. Due to the magnitude of the fire, they were gone before we got here. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and this is the worst set of fatalities I’ve seen.”

Timothy Meade, who identified himself as the cousin of Ellis, said Ellis had moved in with Melinda Daley a month ago. He said Daley and her three children had moved there in August of 2008.

Meade said he was brought cigarettes to Ellis at the house just a few hours before the fire killed all five occupants.

Several City of Logan firefighters and firemen from the Main Island Creek Fire Department worked to extinguish the fire.

State Route 44 was shut down for nearly two hours.

The West Virginia State Police is also assisting with the investigation. WVSP Trooper C.W. Seacrist is the investigating officer.