The Fort Wayne Fire Department is refusing to turn over records on the fires at The Willows, specifically the last fire which occurred almost four months ago. I don’t find this surprising. The FWFD investigative unit has shown their ineptness in the past, bungling an arson investigation in June of last year when my sons vehicle was set on fire.
I was on the scene arriving shortly after the investigator arrived. As the investigator was was packing up his truck preparing to leave, I decided if he wasn’t going to look over the entire crime scene, I would do it. I found a can of accelerant that was used to start the fire less than 25 feet from the scene of the arson. It was located between two houses, and the investigator had not once looked over this area.
One of my employees tracked down the manufacturer and was informed that only one retailer in Fort Wayne sold that product, Home Depot. I went to Home Depot and they gave me the sales data for the last month, with two cans being sold the day before the arson and a few others in the last month. They determined the exact time each can was scanned, and at which register and also had surveillance videos of each person that bought them. I immediately called the FWFD and getting voicemail, I left a message with details of my find. I also emailed the information to them.
The FWFD inspector left the scene of the fire shortly before I did and then went, (I was later told by another investigator) on a vacation that lasted close to two months. I only later found out he was also attending FWPD’s basic recruit school. Nonetheless, no one picked up the case and ran with it. It just sat there.
I called the FWFD’s investigation unit for status on the case and the evidence at least once a week, only to get voice mail, and nothing in the way of return phone calls. This went on for two months. Only after leaving an irate voicemail did I get a call from another investigator. That was 11 1/2 weeks after I had informed them of the tapes at Home Depot.
A new investigator told me that he had sent a investigator to Home Depot that very day. I was told this investigator went to Home Depot and could not see anything on the video tapes. I asked who he had contacted at Home Depot and was told “he didn’t know“.
I received a call back and was then told Scott had went to Home Depot and while there, he was told there were no tapes to view, they did not exist. Interesting change of story since he had told me less than thirty minutes prior that the investigator had looked at the tapes and saw nothing. Liar.
I then called Home Depot and was told the tapes were recorded over after 60 days. The FWFD had taken 11 1/2 weeks to obtain the tapes and dropped the ball. The evidence was then gone. Nice job, eh?
Sorry to rant once again regarding this episode, but in light of the fact that The Willows and the families of those that perished have waited close to four months is bothersome. I know of two people not including myself that have tried to get copies of the investigation without success. What are they hiding?
They’ve been asked for all documents, recordings, radio transmissions, dispatch logs and other information regarding the fire and yet they continue to refuse the requests. Why?
According to court documents, Omaha, Neb.-based Dial Equities, along with the parent company of Indiana Business College now called Harrison College) and the estate of Jennifer Spurgeon, have been unable to obtain documents related to that fire so they could complete pre-litigation investigation.
Spurgeon was one of three college students who died as a result of the fire.
[...]
Spurgeon, 19, of Winemac; Renea Patton, 18, of Ottawa, Ohio; and Lara Punches, 19, of Defiance, Ohio, all died of smoke inhalation, having huddled together in the master bathroom of their second-floor apartment.
The city fire department has not released a cause of the fire.
It was the third serious fire at the complex within four months. The previous fires had different causes – one because of discarded smoking materials and the other the result of a kitchen grease fire.
Attorneys for the apartment complex also requested documents and reports related to the two earlier fires. The city denied all three requests on grounds that the information was investigatory, according to court documents.
[...]
So far, all the three parties have received are three fire department incident reports from the three fires. In spite of a written letter to City Attorney Carol Taylor on March 27, they have received no additional responses, including no explanation of why the requested information should not be made available to them.
This seems to be the standard operating procedure for most city departments. What are they hiding? Maybe it’s their inability to properly conduct an origin and cause investigation. Maybe it’s the fact they never dispatched Aboite’s Station number two’s ladder truck to the fire? It’s literally less than a minute drive to fire.
Something stinks.
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