Who burned down the Baudelaire mansion? (2024)

The seriesended on an island but its bad beginning is still rife with controversy,confusion and contempt. As of today, we have no idea how the Baudelaire firehappened, or who escaped it, or why it was so important. In one of the mostinfuriating and frustrating pieces of dialogues Daniel Handler has everwritten, we, the readers, are denied any answer to this mystery:

Klaus knelt downbeside his sister, and stared into the villain’s shiny eyes.
“You’re the one who made us orphans in the first place,” he said, uttering outloud for the first time a secret all three Baudelaires had kept in their heartsfor almost as long as they could remember. Olaf closed his eyes for a moment,grimacing in pain, and then stared slowly at each of the three children in turn.
“Is that what you think?” he said finally.
“We know it,” Sunny said.
“You don’t know anything,” Count Olaf said. “You three children are the same aswhen I first laid eyes on you. You think you can triumph in this world withnothing more than a keen mind, a pile of books, and the occasional gourmetmeal.” He poured one last gulp of cordial into his poisoned mouth beforethrowing the seashell into the sand. “You’re just like your parents,” he said,and from the shore the children heard Kit Snicket moan.
[Lemony Snicket - The End, Chapter Thirteenth]

There areabout a million different ways to interpret Olaf’s reaction:

• Someoneelse was actually responsible for burning down the mansion.
  
• Agroup of several people (including Olaf) burned down the mansion for differentreasons.
  
• Olafdid burn down the mansion but the Baudelaire parents’ death had nothing to dowith the fire, as at least one of them escaped the fire.
  
• Olafwas coerced into killing the Baudelaire parents and was only an accomplice tothe murder
  
• Olaffeels that Bertrand and Beatrice are responsible for their own death and thatthey essentially brought it upon themselves
  
• Klausis more or less right but Olaf just enjoys not leaving the Baudelaire orphansany closure or certainty on this topic as a final “screw you” to hisenemies.
  

Theambiguity of the universe and the inability to acquire perfect knowledge aremajor themes throughout the series, and Olaf’s ambiguous response is atestament. Nevertheless, there seems to be a kind of poignant sincerity inOlaf’s flippant dismissal. This is a dying man who has nothing left to lose;why would he lie? If a drama-queen has to make a final speech, said drama-queenuses it to send a deeply personal message. And the message here is that Klausis… not wrong, exactly, but that his understanding of his parents’ death is biasedand simplistic. Let’s take some time to examine Olaf’s point of view on the dayof the Baudelaire fire.

Simply put: what the hell happened?

How Count Olaf voices his concerns (and why itmatters)

It’sdifficult to attest to what is going on in Klaus’ mind in Olaf’s final moments:his reaction is more emotional than rational. He doesn’t explain why Olaf isguilty, he just believes it on an almost spiritual level. This is a theory thatKlaus has held onto for a very long time. The Baudelaire orphans know that Olafis an arsonist since their aunt Josephine died. Olaf straight-up bragged aboutit to their faces:

Mr. Poe frowned, andcoughed into his white handkerchief. “That’s enough of your revoltingtalk, Olaf,” he said sternly. “We’ve caught you now, and there’s noway you’ll be getting away. The Lake Lachrymose Police Department will be happyto capture a known criminal wanted for fraud, murder, and the endangerment ofchildren.”
“And arson,” Count Olaf piped up.
[The Wide Window, Chapter Thirteen]

So fromthen on the Baudelaire orphans had serious reasons to believe that Olaf hadburned down their home. Why is this never discussed throughout the series?Probably because the idea of their parents’ murder is so horrid, so unthinkablethat the children prefer not to talk about it. It takes Ishmael committinggenocide, Kit Snicket going into labor in an unsafe area and Olaf’s insistencethat he was a competent guardian for Klaus to truly lose his temper and admitthe truth he’s tried to hide for almost a year.

However,the Baudelaire orphans should know better. They’ve had more than enough to knowthat every time he’s started a fire or committed a horrible crime of any sort,he’s bragged about it. He only hides his involvement when an authority figure,legal representative or person he wants to manipulate is in the vicinity. Thereis no such person on the beach as he questions Klaus’ assertion, in fact he isnot even aware of Kit Snicket’s presence, which is only brought up later in theconversation.

However,absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. When Olaf is confronted by anincorrect accusation of arson, he denies it unambiguously.

“I had Omeroskeep this weapon handy,” Ishmael said, “instead of tossing it in thearboretum, because I thought you might escape from that cage, Count Olaf, justas I escaped from the cage you put me in when you set fire to my home.”
“I didn’t set that fire,” Count Olaf said, his eyes shining bright.
[The End, Chapter Eleven]

Notice howOlaf never denies putting Ishmael into the cage, his dismissal specificallyconcerns the arson. Considering that Ishmael is currently holding Olaf atharpoon-gun-point, his words are chosen very carefully as to not anger him evenmore. On that topic, it’s interesting to note that the Baudelaire orphans havepicked up on one of Olaf’s tics: his eyes shine brightly whenever he distortslanguage to make a sinister joke.

His eyes were very,very shiny, which made him look both hungry and angry. “Hello, mychildren. Please step into your new home, and wipe your feet outside so no mudgets indoors.”
As they stepped into the house, Mr. Poe behind them, the Baudelaire orphansrealized what a ridiculous thing Count Olaf had just said. The room in whichthey found themselves was the dirtiest they had ever seen, and a little bit ofmud from outdoors wouldn’t have made a bit of difference.
[The Bad Beginning, Chapter Two]

“If I know you,Olaf,” said the man with the hook-hands, “you’ll figure out a way toget at that Baudelaire money.”
“We’ll see,” Count Olaf said, but his eyes were shining bright as ifhe already had an idea.
[The Bad Beginning, Chapter Four]

“Mr. Poe toldme,” Count Olaf said, “that you appeared to be having some difficultyadjusting to the life I have so graciously provided for you. I’m very sorry tohear that.”
The children looked at Count Olaf. His face was very serious, as if he werevery sorry to hear that, but his eyes were shiny and bright, the way they arewhen someone is telling a joke.
[The Bad Beginning, Chapter Six]

Count Olaf’s eyes grewvery shiny, but he continued to smirk at Klaus. This was surprising. Klaus hadguessed that once he announced what he knew, this dreadful man would have beenvery angry, even violent. After all, he’d had a furious outburst just becausehe’d wanted roast beef instead of puttanesca sauce. Surely, he’d be even moreenraged to have his plan discovered. But Count Olaf just sat there as calmly asif they were discussing the weather.
[The Bad Beginning, Chapter Eight]

“Where can she beindeed?” said a voice behind them, and the two children turned around.Count Olaf was standing in the doorway, watching Violet and Klaus as theysearched the room. His eyes were shining brighter than they ever had, and hewas still smiling like he’d just uttered a joke.
[The Bad Beginning, Chapter Nine]

So in theabove passage Olaf is definitely mocking Ishmael (a part of him is certainlytoying with him to see if he has the guts to spill Olaf’s and spread the deadlyspores of the Medusoid Mycelium). But his eyes do not shine when Klausconfronts him about his parents’ murder. Olaf was is, in fact, telling a jokewhen he tells the Baudelaire orphans they did not know anything about the firewhich destroyed their home. He is not being opaque on purpose or playing mind-games.He is voicing legitimate, sincere concerns and grievances.

What Klaus believes (mistakenly)

Klaus doesnot explain why on Earth Olaf would want to kill the Baudelaire parents, butgiven what he knows at this point in the series, he can easily imagine threemain motives:

• PROFIT
  Killing off the Baudelaire parents would allow Olaf to gain custody of theirchildren and from then on concoct schemes to steal their massive inheritance.
• REVENGE
  Olaf’s parents were assassinated by Bertrand and Beatrice and Olaf wanted theirchildren to endure the pain he felt after his own losses.
• DUTY
  Olaf is part of the side of V.F.D. run by the Man With Beard But No Hair andthe Woman With Hair But No Beard, two fanatics who terrify him and burn downbuildings of rich children on a regular basis. If they ordered him to killBertrand and Beatrice (whom they have described as their enemies), Olaf wouldbe compelled to obey.

Naturally,none of these motives are mutually exclusive. In fact, they combine quite well.Many mansions of rich families have been burned down because of V.F.D.’s schismand unifying theories have been proposed to explain why. Basically, Olaf’smotives could be summarized as such:

• V.F.D.used to finance itself by kidnapping rich children and burning down theirparents’ home, after which said young volunteers would be brainwashed intousing their own fortune to help the organization (Link). Beatrice and Bertrand killed Olaf’s parents so that V.F.D.would gain a rich volunteer ready to finance their cause (Link). Then the schism happened: some remorseful volunteers (suchas Bertrand and Beatrice) rejected the system altogether and vowed never to useviolence again, while people like Olaf decided to steal fortunes for their ownprofit rather than that of the organization (Link). Olaf saw Beatrice and Bertrand as hypocrites who had neverbeen truly punished for their actions and as soon as his two bosses allowed it,he decided to inflict on the Baudelaire orphans what had been inflicted uponhim.
  

Klaus iscertainly missing some pieces of the puzzle but has enough material to theorizethat this is what truly happened. And it’s certainly what many readers of theseries believe about Olaf, too.

ExceptOlaf’s reaction suggests that this interpretation is completely wrong. So whatthen? Was there a completely different reason to burn down the Baudelairemansion? Why did Beatrice and Bertrand have to die?

In apredictable and unfortunate turn of events, it all comes back to the sugarbowl.

The timing of the Baudelaire fire (and itsimplications)

The firstpoint we must examine is the timing of the event. We know that the Baudelaireparents and Olaf were enemies well before Violet was born. If Olaf hates themso much, why did he wait so many years to enact his revenge? How could Bertrandand Beatrice expect to keep their children safe in a city where their arch-nemesiscould roam freely, in the public eye? Somehow, they must have had reason tobelieve Olaf wouldn’t dare attack them. The most obvious answer is thatBeatrice was the last known owner of the sugar bowl.

“Then you knowall about the sugar bowl,” Esmé said, “and what’s inside. You know howimportant that thing was, and how many lives were lost in the quest to find it.You know how difficult it was to find a container that could hold it safely,securely, and attractively. You know what it means to the Baudelaires and whatit means to the Snickets.” She took one sandaled step closer to Dewey, andstretched out one silver fingernail-the one shaped like an S-until it was almostpoking him in the eye. “And you know,” she said in a terrible voice, “that itis mine.”
“Not anymore,” Dewey said.
“Beatrice stole it from me!” Esmé cried.
“There are worse things,” Dewey said, “than theft.”
[The Penultimate Peril, Chapter Nine]

As Deweyputs it, this put her in a position of power over Olaf, who wants it verybadly. It’s easy to imagine that he was condemned to simply observe theBaudelaire parents from afar, in the hope of learning where they were hidingthe sugar bowl.

“It doesn’t matter,Baudelaires,” Jerome said. “Olaf won’t dare unleash the Medusoid Myceliumunless he gets his hands on the sugar bowl, and he’ll never find it.”
[The Penultimate Peril, Chapter Eight]

DanielHandler wrote a little-known supplement called "The Dismal Dinner”where he reveals important information about what happened shortly before theBaudelaire fire. The sugar bowl was being shown around in the Baudelairemansion some days before the fire, and Olaf was watching. This means that therewas a short lapse of time during which he more or less knew where the sugarbowl was hidden, before it was taken away someplace else. Olaf had a miraculouschance of getting his hands on the item, one and only one. This must havesomething to do with the fire.

My discovery of a tornpant leg shows that Sunny, an infant and the youngest Baudelaire child, playeda key role in the dinner party held at the Baudelaire mansion quite some timebefore it was reduced to a smoking pile of rubble. Third-hand reports suggestthat just after the sugar bowl was placed on the table, Sunny shrieked,“Funcoot!”, which either meant “My gums hurt!” or “I believe I may haveseen someone lurking outside.”
[The Dismal Dinner, part 3.]

Recent discoveriessupport my suspicions about the fateful event hosted by the Baudelaire parentsbefore their death. Near the end of the meal, baby Sunny Baudelaire looked outthe window and began to cry with a clarity and force that would sooncharacterize her ability to bite things. Her cries alarmed a number of guestswho were in the process of passing around the sugar bowl.
[The Dismal Dinner, part 4.]

See Also

Count OlafRing In 'Lemony Snicket' On Netflix With A Series Of Unfortunate RecipesThe Filthy FoodPasta Puttanesca | The Bad Beginning — A Literary Supper

But thereis also another event which occurs shortly before the Baudelaire fire, thistime revealed in the additional notes of "The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition”.It concerns another fire, that of ther Royal Gardens, which happened some timebefore the start of the series. To put it plainly, Olaf failed to burn down aplace where he was attempting to steal a poisonous plant, and Jacques reportedit in the hope that the authorities would put two and two together and realizethat his brother Lemony had been framed for Olaf’s crimes. You can read allabout this theory here: (Link).

p.18 [The Baudelaireorphans] passed an enormous pile of dirt where the Royal Gardens once stood.For more information on the destruction of the Royal Gardens, interestedparties might turn to the following articles in The Daily Punctilio, the city’snewspaper: “Arson suspected in Destruction of Royal Gardens,” by JacquesSnicket, and “Absolutely No Arson or Any Other Suspicious Thing Associated withthe Royal Gardens, which Simply Burned to the Ground and Then Were Covered inDirt Due to Wind, Says Official Fire Department,” by Geraldine Julienne.
[The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition, p.175]

So two veryimportant things happen a few days before the Baudelaire fire:

1. Jacques is working hard to provethat Olaf is an arsonist, and Justice Strauss is going to be assigned on thecase.
   
2. Count Olaf is aware that the sugarbowl is being kept inside the Baudelaire mansion.
   

These twofacts combine to explain what may have happened on the morning of the fire.

But mostimportant is the fact that Olaf is indeed implied to have been present insidethe Baudelaire mansion on that day…

p.6 One of the things Violet,Klaus, and Sunny really liked about their parents was that they didn’t sendtheir children away when they had company over, but allowed them to join theadults at the dinner table… The Baudelaire table was not used exclusively fordinner. Its surface was handy for unrolling maps, completing jigsaw puzzles,and tracing the faces of people from photographs. One thing I remember from mytime at the table was that it was always necessary to use a coaster underneathone’s beverage so as to not leave an unsightly ring on the wood.
[The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition, pp.171-172]

p.98 But Count Olafjust sat there as calmly as if they were discussing the weather. Certain kindsof weather-severe rainstorms, for instance-have a dampening effect on fires,which is displeasing to arsonists. There have been reports of alleged arsonistsso reportedly displeased with the weather that they have been rumored to poundtheir beverages on an unprotected wooden table.
[The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition, p.179]

…and thathe was apparently invited there by the Baudelaire parents:

p.2 The threeBaudelaire children lived with their parents in an enormous mansion at theheart of a dirty and busy city, and occasionally their parents gave thempermission to take a rickety trolley-the word “rickety”, you probably know,here means “unsteady” or “likely to collapse”-alone to the seashore… On thatparticular occasion, the Baudelaire parents not only gave their childrenpermission but encouraged them to leave the house, as the adults had somepressing business to attend to. This business was delayed indefinitely due todeath. Also note that the trolley has since collapsed, and its remains wererecycled into the foundation of a hotel.
[The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition, p.171]

pp.12-13 Here andthere, the children could see traces of the home they had loved: fragments oftheir grand piano, an elegant bottle in which Mr. Baudelaire had kept brandy,the scorched cushion of the windowseat where their mother liked to sit andread. Curiously enough, Mr. Baudelaire’s brandy bottle was found on the remainsof the dining table, with no coasters nearby. This would indicate that eitherthe coasters were burned beyond recognition, or the Baudelaires had received avisitor who had no manners whatsoever.
[The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition, pp.173-174]

There seemsto be a number of odd coincidences there. With their knowledge of the sugarbowl’s relevance and the Jacques’ ongoing investigation of Olaf’s crimes, theBaudelaire parents actually have a lot of control over the situation at thispoint. Is it possible that they lured Olaf into their house? Was his presencepart of a secret plan?

Why the Baudelaire fire resembles theDenouement fire (for all the right reasons)

“ASeries of Unfortunate Events” largely deals with the problem of historyrepeating itself, particularly when it comes to the cycles of violence. Sonsand daughters follow in their forbearers’ footsteps and commit the same kind ofmistakes, never learning anything. Near the end of the saga, the Baudelairechildren discover that Olaf was orphaned by their parents for something relatedto V.F.D., and that he seems to do what he does based on retribution. Furthermore,the schism which broke the organization is followed by several smaller, similarschisms: the separation of Klaus and Fiona, the mutiny of the Islanders, etc.Many events of the past and present are explicitly presented as parallel to eachother.

In manyways one would think that, the most logical way to uncover the truth about theBaudelaire fire is to compare it to a similar fire. Let’s see what we know:

• Ithad something to do with the sugar bowl being exchanged there and Olaf wantingto get his hands on it.
  
• Thefire happens in relation to a big investigation regarding Olaf’s crimes.
  
• Oneor several characters may have survived and their fate is left ambiguous byLemony in the narration. Lemony himself might have been there.
  
• Theexistence of a secret underground complex changes the entire meaning of theevent.
  

As thesimilarities pile up, it becomes clear that the set-up of the Baudelaire fireclearly mirrors the one which destroyed Hotel Denouement. And there is reasonto believe that the sugar bowl is actually a red herring, a sinking lure thatthe “noble” side of V.F.D. uses to get the other side where they want them,when they want them (Link). Theentire sugar bowl chase in “The Penultimate Peril” is actually an elaboratetrap set up by Dewey and his allies to arrest Olaf and his allies, and to putthem on trial in the Hotel Denouement’s lobby where all evidence of theircrimes will be presented to the judges of the High Court.

TheBaudelaire fire was a trial version of the Denouement fire. The Baudelaireparents made sure that Olaf knew that the sugar bowl was being kept there, touse his greed against him. Then they invited him into their home on a falsepretext, knowing he would waste time trying to find the Vessel For Disaccharides.In the meantime, Jacques was supposed to present the results of hisinvestigation to the police. The authorities would then come to the Baudelairemansion and arrest Olaf.

Thisscenario is key to understand why the building eventually caught fire.

Why Olaf burned down the Baudelaire mansion (ashe tried to retrieve the sugar bowl)

There’s aparticularly strange detail about the scene of the crime which everyone in theseries overlooked: the broken pieces of the brandy bottle. Now, anyone who readthe un-Authorized Autobiography can tell you that brandy is traditionally drunkat V.F.D. committee reunions. So the fact that the bottle is highlighted byHandler, and presented out of its liquor cabinet, must be significant. Firstly,it reinforces the idea that some discussion related to V.F.D. was going onwhile the children were having fun at the beach.

pp.12-13 Here andthere, the children could see traces of the home they had loved: fragments oftheir grand piano, an elegant bottle in which Mr. Baudelaire had kept brandy,the scorched cushion of the windowseat where their mother liked to sit andread. Curiously enough, Mr. Baudelaire’s brandy bottle was found on the remainsof the dining table, with no coasters nearby. This would indicate that eitherthe coasters were burned beyond recognition, or the Baudelaires had received avisitor who had no manners whatsoever.
[The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition, pp.173-174]

J— Please pass thebrandy.
[Lemony Snicket’s un-Authorized Autobiography, p.37]

After the pudding, theolder gentleman of my acquaintance and I retired to an enormous, imposingliving room to enjoy and after-dinner brandy, and the arcane smile returned tohis face as a number of older gentlemen not of my acquaintance joined us,clearly for some sort of meeting.
[Lemony Snicket’s un-Authorized Autobiography, p.xiv]

Secondly,however, it brings up a much more salient point: why was the bottle broken?Glass melts easily under fire, and in fact Daniel Handler makes a point ofshowing a glass instrument which has melted because of the damage caused by theheat. Alcohol is flammable, so a brandy bottle should burn even more easily asthe liquid ignited. And yet the bottle is clearly well-preserved enough for thechildren to recognize it as their father’s brandy bottle immediately. It’s inshards, so it would have to be barely burned for any identification. How isthis possible?

Thesolution to this problem is that Olaf poured the brandy out of the bottle on aparticularly flammable object (a book?), and used his matches to light a firein the Baudelaire library. He then kept the empty bottle on his person as heran to the other side of the house. This side of the house was less affected bythe fire as the fire department had arrived by the time the flames caught upwith him.

“The firedepartment arrived, of course,” Mr. Poe said, “but they were toolate. The entire house was engulfed in fire. It burned to the ground. ”
Klaus pictured all the books in the library, going up in flames. Now he’d neverread all of them.
[The Bad Beginning, Chapter One]

Olaf’s maingoal was to escape, yes, but he also had a secondary objective in mind: in theheat of the brazier, the sugar bowl would be threatened and the Baudelaireparents would have no choice but to retrieve it from its safe. It was thequickest, easiest way for Olaf to learn where it was hidden and to get hishands on it. This tactic is used with some success by Sherlock Holmes in thestory “A scandal in Bohemia”.

TheBaudelaire parents soon realized that a fire had started in their home anddecided to split. Beatrice went to the library where she attempted to salvagedas many V.F.D. documents as she could, and to retrieve the sugar bowl from itshiding place. The Baudelaire library indeed holds many documents precious toV.F.D. and the Baudelaire parents were always afraid that a fire would destroythem:

“Our mother wouldget mad, too,” Klaus said. “Remember, Violet, when we left the windowof the library open, and that night it rained?”
“She really flew off the handle,” Violet said, using a phrase whichhere means “became extremely angry.”
“We spoiled an atlas that she said was irreplaceable.”
“You should have heard her yell,” Klaus said. “Our father camedown from his study to see what was the matter.”
“And then he started yelling, too,” Violet said, and the Baudelairespaused and looked at one another uncomfortably.
[The Grim Grotto, Chapter Seven]

“And sometimesyou burn the toast,” Klaus said, and they smiled. They were bothremembering a time when the two of them got up early to make a specialbreakfast for their parents. Violet had burned the toast, and their parents,smelling smoke, had run downstairs to see what the matter was. When they sawViolet and Klaus, looking forlornly at pieces of pitch-black toast, theylaughed and laughed, and then made pancakes for the whole family.
[The Bad Beginning, Chapter Three]

Bertrand,meanwhile, ran after Olaf to prevent his escape and to make sure he wasn’tfollowing Beatrice to the sugar bowl’s hiding place. Olaf was apprehended byBertrand but broke the empty brandy bottle to make a shiv, and stabbed him in(debatable) self-defense. Bertrand fell to the floor as he bled from the stabwounds and Olaf jumped out a window. His body would later be destroyed by theflames. Beatrice, meanwhile, got badly burned trying to secure the sugar bowland her books and soon found herself trapped. Her only escape was the secretpassageway under the house, where she remained for quite some time. For moreinformation on how Beatrice could have survived the fire, read this theory: (Link).

How other passages of the series mirror theevent (through symbols)

There isindeed reason to believe that the brandy was used to ignite the fire and thatit* broken pieces were used to create a shiv: the plot quite literally spellsit out for us. In “The Bad Beginning”, Klaus and Violet findthemselves trapped in Olaf’s lair. The only items at their disposal are Olaf’sempty wine bottles, scattered around. Violet Baudelaire, in a typical displayof thuggish swagger, suggests flaming alcohol and a shiv as an escape plan. Andthe Baudelaire fire happens in the same book, too! How fitting would it be forthe Baudelaire children to re-enact the method that Olaf used to burn downtheir house… to burn down his own house?

“If we had anykerosene,” Violet said, around noon, “I could make Molotov co*cktailswith these bottles.” […] “They’re small bombs made insidebottles,” Violet explained. “We could throw them our the window andattract the attention of passersby.” […] “We could break thesebottles in half,” Violet said, “and use them as knives, but I’mafraid that Count Olaf’s troupe would overpower us.”
[The Bad Beginning, Chapter Eleven]

Thesimilarities do not end there: let’s go back to the Hotel Denouement fire. Howdid Olaf light it, exactly? A burning book, right next to dangerous chemicals.The scene is described as unsettling. Part of that, of course, has to do withthe fact that our protagonists value education and that autodafés bring up verydistasteful connotations. On another level, however, it’s possible that thismethod of arson subconsciously reminds them of the way Olaf destroyed their ownhome. It’s no wonder they bring up this possibility in the next book. Thelighting of the book acts as a triggering event: it’s the moment the childrenactually admit to themselves that Olaf probably murdered their parents.

The Baudelaires leanedforward to see if they could read what the injustice expert had written, andcaught only the word “passageway” before Olaf lit a match and tossedit expertly onto the page. The paper caught on fire at once, and the book beganto burn. […]
“We’d best get away from here,” Count Olaf said, breaking thesilence. “In my experience, once the flames reach the chemicals, the firewill spread very quickly.
[The Penultimate Peril, Chapter Thirteen]

So, to comeback to our initial question… did Olaf burn down the Baudelaire mansion? Ishe the one who made the Baudelaire children orphans in the first place? Well…it could that Olaf answers neither "yes” or “no” becauseany negative or positive statement would be simplistic. Technically, one couldindeed make a case for Olaf being responsible for the fire, and for Bertrand’sdeath. Then again, the murder and arson were a means to an end, not an end initself. Olaf’s personal vendetta against the Baudelaire parents actually playedvery little role in the Baudelaire fire. Mostly the culprit seems to have actedthe way he always has: as a ruthless thief willing to destroy anything in itspath to get the treasure he so desperately wants. Yet in many ways, his behaviorwas that of a beast trapped in a cage, improvising a desperate escape. Besides,no one forced the Baudelaire parents to hatch a sinister plot to entrap Olaf intheir home, or Beatrice to save the books instead of running outside to safety,or Bertrand to catch Olaf instead of helping his wife escape. They were also,on a metaphorical level, “playing with fire”.