Meriden — A fire early Tuesday morning that destroyed an 18th-century Kimball Union Academy faculty home was apparently caused by discarded ashes from a wood stove, according to the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal’s Office.

“It’s wood stove ashes. That’s what we suspect … Nobody really knew how they got in there, but they got in there,” said fire investigator Sean Plumer, who talked to the family members living in the Route 120 home, which was known as the Penniman House and dated back to 1790.

“They had an active wood stove that was burning wood, heating the home, and the ashes ended up in the trash can, which ultimately caught fire,” he said

The fire, which broke out in an attached shed shortly after 4 a.m. on Tuesday, displaced KUA assistant athletic director Charles Mhlauri, his wife Thembi, their four children and two guests.

Plumer said on Saturday it was fortunate that one person in the home was awake and warned others of the fire.

He said he located three smoke detectors in the home, but none of them had batteries in them.

Plumer said he is trying to determine the official designation for the building and whether the detectors should have been hard wired.

“I’m going to have to look into the books,” said Plumer, who was in Lebanon on Saturday assisting with the investigation into the fire that destroyed the First Baptist Church of Lebanon.

Charles Mhlauri is the former coach of the national soccer team in Zimbabwe, his native country.

He and his family now are staying in other KUA property, school officials said earlier this week.

Although Lightning Soccer, where he is director of coaching, spells his last name Mhlauri, at KUA he goes by Muhlauri, which the school says is an Americanized spelling of the name.

John P. Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com or 603-727-3217.