ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 9, 1997 TAG: 9703100100
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI THE ROANOKE TIMES
Staff Writer Jan Vertefeuille contributed to this story.
A federal indictment alleges that a fire that killed two people in a Southwest Roanoke apartment in 1995 was arson. Why did local investigators conclude the fire was accidental?
Roanoke fire investigators say they did nothing wrong in ruling that a 1995 apartment fire that killed two people was accidental, even though they did not test for flammable materials.
Last week, a federal indictment accused members of a Roanoke family of firebombing that Southwest Roanoke apartment.
"As I read the report and findings, the conclusions [fire investigators] came to were logical conclusions," said Roanoke Fire Chief James Grigsby, who came to Roanoke from Kalamazoo, Mich., nine months after the fire.
As a result of the apparent mistake, though, fire officials will review their current investigative policies, which do not include specific directions about when to take evidence at a fatal fire scene, Grigsby said. That decision is now left up to the commanding fire officer on the scene.
"We will be asking at what point in time should we take samples" of evidence, Grigsby said. "In this case, they did everything that is normally done." But, he conceded, having to come back to a homicide investigation with no physical evidence is difficult.
"We want to make sure when we call a fire accidental that it is," he said. "But arson is one of the hardest crimes to prove."
More than a year after the Jan. 13, 1995, fire, a federal investigation added information that indicated the fire was arson.
Barbara Marie Hardy, 28, and her boyfriend, Michael Todd Thomas, 26, died during the late-night blaze in their second-floor apartment at 414 1/2 13th Street S.W. Hardy jumped from a rear window. Thomas was found on a sofa bed in the living room. Both died from smoke inhalation and burns.
The blaze started where Thomas' body was found - on a sofa bed in the living room, according to a report filed by Assistant Fire Marshal David Deck. When Hardy jumped through a window in the room, oxygen fed the blaze.
"There was evidence of smoking materials and wine bottles in [the] kitchen and living room," Deck said in his report. "This fire appeared to be a slow-burning fire starting on the foam mattress of the sofa bed. ... This was an accidental fire caused by misplaced smoking material."
Last week, Deck said his ruling that the fire was accidental came from his experience and from the burn debris. "I didn't see anything suspicious," he said. "There was a lack of anything else. The fire had to start for some reason."
In Virginia, all fires are presumed accidental unless investigators can prove otherwise. Police become involved only if a fire marshal rules it was arson.
In this case, Thomas' smoking habit and the evidence of a slow-burning fire led investigators to conclude that Thomas fell asleep while smoking.
There were no signs that anyone had tried to get into the apartment before the blaze. Firefighters had to kick in the front door when they arrived.
Investigators took photographs of the scene but did not take samples from the area where the fire started, according to the report. Deck said he couldn't remember if anyone had talked to witnesses. His report indicates that no witnesses were interviewed.
Roanoke investigators said that once federal investigators contacted them last winter with additional information on the fire, the agencies worked together on the case.
Wednesday, nine suspected members of what federal investigators are calling the Abed "crime family" were arrested on racketeering charges that allege, among other things, arson, murder, drug distribution, extortion and burglary. One of those charged is still at large.
The apartment fire on 13th Street, one of nine arsons the indictment links to the Abeds, came the same day a neighboring convenience store burned. Just before dawn Jan. 13, 1995, a Molotov cocktail was thrown into The Corner Store at 422 13th, destroying it, according to the indictment. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' Roanoke office helped Roanoke fire officials investigate that blaze.
During the federal investigation into the Abed family, agents found a witness who reportedly saw someone throw an object into Hardy's apartment just before the fatal fire broke out, according to testimony in U.S. District Court last week. A federal prosecutor described the crime as "the appearance of arson by Molotov cocktail."
Investigators believe the apartment fire was set because Hardy and Thomas might have seen someone set the fire at The Corner Store.
Last week, Roanoke fire investigators said they found no evidence that would have led them to believe a Molotov cocktail ignited the apartment fire.
In light of the witness account, Grigsby said, his office agrees with the federal findings.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB