Loop Fire Deaths Ruled Homicides

Even though investigators have yet to determine if the Loop high-rise fire that killed six people was an accident or arson, Cook County’s chief medical examiner said Wednesday he believes it was deliberately set and ruled the deaths homicides.

Dr. Edmund Donoghue said there was "no plausible reason" other than arson for the traces of gasoline found in the 12^th floor storage closet where the fire started.

"In this case we think someone went into that room, spread gasoline and ignited it," Donoghue said. "This was not some kind of accident or bad housekeeping."

Police said Wednesday it was far too early in their investigation to reach such a sweeping conclusion about the Oct. 17 fire at the County Administration Building, 69 W. Washington St.

Reaction to the ruling again showed the deep divisions within the agencies involved in the investigation. Chicago police and federal investigators are leaning away from arson, while the Chicago Fire Department and prosecutors have taken the opposite tract.

Donoghue said his office consulted with police, fire officials and prosecutors and had enough information to make its own ruling. The key, he said, was the Fire Department’s Office of Fire Investigation report in December, which determined that the fire was "Incendiary," or started by a person, and that it was fueled by gasoline. Light fixtures had initially been under suspicion, but test were inconclusive.

In ruling the deaths homicides, Donoghue said his office simply found that the victims died because of the actions of another. Any death that results from arson is by definition a homicide, he said.

That doesn’t mean the homicides will be classified as murders, police officials said. That would require finding criminal intent, which is the focus of the police investigation, said police spokesman David Bayless.

Chicago had 599 murders in 2003, leading the nation. But it was also the first time in 36 years that the annual total of homicides fell below 600.

There are occasions when a homicide would not legally be considered murder, said Donoghue, citing acts of war and justifiable police shootings as examples.

The medical examiner had the option of classifying the manner of the deaths as "undetermined" pending the outcome of the police investigation. Donoghue said he would be willing to re-examine his finding if the fire ultimately is found to have been accidental, but Donoghue called that scenario unlikely.

"The finding of gasoline and the report by [the Fire Department] that the fire was incendiary was the major factor," Donoghue said. "There is no plausible reason for the presence of gasoline."

This month, Chicago police removed 10 gasoline containers from the building. A lawyer for the building management company has said the fuel was used for cleaning equipment and snowblowers and stored in fireproof cabinets in secured areas on the third and 36^th floors, levels that had no tenants. The fire was on the 12^th floor.

Assistant state’s attorney from the Special Prosecutions Bureau have been consulting with police investigators daily. After the Fire Department report, investigators began interviewing workers and building employees with access to the area where the fire started. In order to track movement in the building, prosecutors subpoenaed surveillance videotapes from the building and records of security card swipes.

"Dr. Donoghue is one of the premier forensic pathologists in the country, and I have great respect for his well-reasoned opinion," said Scott Cassiday, chief of the Special Prosecutions Bureau. "We owe it to the six victims of this terrible tragedy to find out what happened and to treat the investigation as the worst-case scenario. There’s no reason to treat it otherwise."

Among those criticizing Donoghue’s decision was Terry Ekl, a criminal defense attorney advising employees of the building’s management company.

"I don’t k now what evidence he had to conclude the way that he did," Ekl said. "He certainly is not in a position that is superior to the police bomb and arson unit or the ATF in determining how this started."

The six county employees killed when they were trapped in locked, smoky stairwells were Maureen McDonald, 57; John Slater, III< 39; Sara Chapman, 38; Felice Lichaw, 51; Janet Grant, 47; and Teresa Zajac, 51.

Lawyer, Robert Clifford, whose firm has filed suit on behalf of some victims and their families, said the medical examiner’s ruling likely would have little effect on his case.

"First, it is a ruling that will be obviously very distressing to the families because it will continue the anxiety that they are all feeling as a consequence of the uncertainties surrounding that evening," Clifford said.

"In terms of the case itself, it doesn’t really change things because the focus of our case is not really the cause of the fire or how the fire developed so much as the evacuation.

"And finally, this ruling places great emphasis on the need for the investigating authorities to complete their work with dispatch."

In two other major tragedies in the city last year, the E2 nightclub stampede and the Lincoln Park Porch collapse, the deaths were classified as accidental by the medical examiner.

Donoghue said the distinction is that no direct criminal action led to the deaths, even though in the E2 case, the club’s owners, manager and party promoter were charged with involuntary manslaughter, accused of packing the club to many times its capacity and knowingly creating a safety hazard.

In the E2 probe, police were unable to decide on charges and turned the case over to prosecutors, who took evidence to a grand jury. Indictments in the case were handed down five months later.