Grape Street fire victims' grandparents believe daughter is innocent | News

The Grape Street fire victims’ grandparents are sharing their thoughts on their daughter’s arrest.

James and Hope Reavey live in Elmira, where Bobbie Kugler and her kids lived before moving to Rochester last year.

The Reaveys say they're shocked by the news police arrested their daughter, and charged her with arson and manslaughter.

James Reavey, Kugler's father, told News10NBC, “Everybody knows how she is, they know she is a loving mother. She would never do nothin’ to hurt her kids. It killed her to know they died. She ended up trying to hurt herself over it, cause she missed them so much.”

The fire started around 1:00 a.m. on February 18.
 
Investigators say the fire spread through out the whole house in minutes. Friday, the Fire Chief wouldn't say how or what they believe Kugler used to start the fire, but he did talk about why it grew so fast.

Rochester Fire Chief, John Caufield, said, “We believe that the types of materials that were in the house, mostly synthetic, and those types of fires burn in a much more rapid way than what we call sort of the traditional legacy type cotton, natural fabrics.”

Kugler's father says his daughter told him how the fire started.

“There was incense on the wall -- a piece of ash had fallen down on some papers in a basket, and there was a window open a little bit, and it fuel it. Bobbie was sleeping. She always had incense in her house.”

He says it won’t be long before his daughter is proven innocent.

“What would she gain by this, she loved her kids.”