What began as one family’s heartbreak — losing everything in a house fire just days before Christmas — has grown into a months-long investigation uncovering electrical failures, missing inspection records, and a disconnect box that experts say was never meant for the job it was being used for.
The fire at a Taylor Landing home in Columbia was traced to the HVAC unit in the attic. That discovery prompted neighbors to come forward with their own alarming findings: burned and melted disconnect boxes and missing inspection records. When the state went back to reinspect homes in the neighborhood most failed.
Since our investigation began, more homes have been inspected, according to state officials. To date, 127 homes have been reinspected. Of those, 89 failed and only 38 passed — a failure rate that remains at 70%…