Same story, 3 different versions

[southsider2k5]

For a little bit of backround, this happened about 4 or 5 blocks from my house, so I was looking at the different accounts of it. The first is a Gary paper, the second is the Chicago Tribune, the third is a blurp from the Washington Times.

 

The Tribune makes no mention at all of illegal aliens, the Gary Post talks about it, and in the Washington Post, pretty much all that is said is that 4 died, and they might be illegal.

 

I'll be curious what our local paper has to say...

 

Also for the people involved. This is a tragedy no matter what the details are.

 

MICHIGAN CITY — An early Sunday morning fire killed four people in a crowded house known to have makeshift rooms which might have been used by illegal immigrants.

 

The fire, which engulfed the back end of the two-story home at 2021 Buffalo St., quickly laid waste to most of the house.

 

Fire officials said they did not know what caused the fire. Neighbors said they heard an explosion, and saw some house residents flee to safety.

 

Firefighters arrived on the scene around 3 a.m., and stayed at the site all day. The fire was put out after three hours, and state and local investigators made clear there were many answers to be sought.

 

One problem may have been a wariness of some of the residents to speak to authorities. Neighbors said the house was overoccupied with Asian and Hispanic residents who work at a local Chinese restaurant.

 

The death toll was confirmed to be four Hispanic residents on the second floor, according to the LaPorte County coroner’s office.

 

Chuck Greis, deputy chief of Michigan City Fire Department, said there were no other reported injuries, and that immigration officials had been to the scene.

 

Also puzzling to officials is how many people actually lived in the house. Estimates ranged from 12 to as many as 20 earlier in the year. Fire officials said they found 12 mattresses.

 

Neighbors said the house was home to numerous employees of the Fortune House, a Michigan City restaurant on U.S. 20 near the Marquette Mall.

 

On Sunday, a hand-written note was posted on the front door of the Fortune House, apologizing for being closed during its Sunday hours.

 

Fortune House owner Zhi Jian Jiang could not be reached for comment. The Post-Tribune confirmed Zhi Jian Jiang also owns the Buffalo Street house.

 

The Buffalo Street house, listed as for sale on a Northwest Indiana real estate site, was billed as needing improvement.

 

Neighbor Holly Hanrath, 27, had visited the house with her husband to check out a possible investment opportunity.

 

Hanrath said when she visited the home about three weeks ago, her husband smelled natural gas near the second-floor stove in the kitchen.

 

Up against the kitchen cabinets in the second-floor apartment were mattresses which appeared to be ready to be removed, she said.

 

Hanrath said she was concerned about old electrical wiring and dry wooden windows.

 

Hanrath was not able to see every room, as some were padlocked.

 

She said some of the rooms were makeshift in nature, using plywood for walls.

 

“They weren’t real bedrooms,” she told the Post-Tribune.

 

Frank Hanrath, 28, said ultimately the couple decided not to buy the house across the street from them because they didn’t feel it was safe enough for their own family to live in, and not safe enough for possible tenants.

 

The house is still listed online for $39,900. It is billed as a “two-unit income property with great potential. Boasting over 2,000 square feet of living space, detached garage, and basement, this is a wonderful investment.”

 

But neighbors like Ann Costello, 23, as well as Hanrath, said the grass would sometimes grow too high, and neighbors would complain.

 

At least one complaint was made to the LaPorte County Health Department about possible overoccupancy.

 

But almost every neighbor said the residents, although sometimes many in number, were respectful, and worked long hours.

 

A now-destroyed maroon minivan would gather up workers early in the day, then drop them off home hours later, said neighbor Jennifer Clouse of Manhattan St. Then a new batch of workers would come out, ready for the late shift.

 

Holly Hanrath said she had just gone to bed Sunday morning before being awakened only minutes later by the explosion.

 

Across the street, Clouse and her visiting uncle, Ed Andershock of Sarasota, Fla., came out to the see the back of the workers’ home, near Clouse’s garage, ablaze.

 

Andershock said it was a cool night, until they turned the corner of their garage, and a wall of heat hit them. No damage was done to other houses, except for ashes thrown into the air.

 

City Fire Chief Ralph Martin said when fire crews arrived, the rear of the home was engulfed in flames and, within minutes, the fire had spread through the house. He said the fire appeared to have traveled through the walls or ceilings.

 

Crews needed three hours to extinguish the blaze. Neighbors watched the grim sight of four bodies being taken away by authorities after the blaze ended.

 

The missing residents, some who wandered off down streets, frustrated officials later in the day.

 

“We don’t know why they left, why they did not want to stay and why they did not want to address any questions we may have,” Indiana State Fire Marshal Roger Johnson said.

 

The Michigan City Fire Department was assisted by Johnson’s department, the coroner, Michigan City police and the the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

 

Officials plan a news conference at 11 a.m. today at the Michigan City Fire Department training center.

 

Officials did not divulge further information about the victims’ identities or ages.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

 

4 dead in Michigan City house fire

 

By Ted Gregory

Tribune staff reporter

Published August 13, 2006, 7:04 PM CDT

 

 

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. -- A house fire that killed four people here early Sunday came as no surprise to Estelle Pawlowski.

 

On the hunt for a rental property, she had walked through the yellow-sided house at Buffalo and Russell Streets about a month ago after seeing it hit the market at about $40,000.

 

"I hate to say it, but it looked like a firetrap," Pawlowski said Sunday. "They made rooms out of boxes. ..... It was cluttered all over the place. It was just really, really weird."

 

Investigators said Sunday that the two-story house was divided into 12 to 15 sleeping areas. Officials speculated that the home was so cluttered because it was a boardinghouse for Asian employees of a popular Chinese restaurant in Michigan City.

 

"We do suspect that there were a great number of people in the house," said Indiana State Fire Marshal Roger Johnson.

 

Records showed that the home's owner, Zhi Jian Jiang, also owns the Fortune House restaurant, 312 W. U.S. Highway 20, less than 3 miles from the destroyed home. Johnson said investigators had spoken with Jiang, but he declined to elaborate.

 

Attempts to reach Jiang were unsuccessful, and a sign taped to the door of his restaurant stated that it was closed Sunday.

 

Authorities said they hadn't identified the four people who died. Johnson said they may be able to check fingerprints against those on passports.

 

Michigan City Fire Chief Ralph Martin said there were reports that numerous people fled the house at the time of the fire, and police were trying to identify and talk to them.

 

"We don't know why they left, why they didn't stay and answer our questions," Johnson said.

 

The fire, which started about 3:30 a.m., probably began in the rear of the house, Johnson said. But investigators said they were uncertain about the cause of the blaze, which spread rapidly and was extinguished by 6:30 a.m. It was unclear if there were smoke detectors in the house.

 

Fire investigators brought a dog trained in detecting accelerants to walk through the house.

 

"Do we suspect foul play at this point? No," Johnson said. "Are we ruling it out? Absolutely not."

 

Authorities were planning a news conference for 11 a.m. Monday.

 

Ian Neulieb, 20, who lives about one block north of the house, was having a cigarette outside and chatting with neighbor Nicole Taylor, 19, when he saw the orange glow of the fire.

 

Neulieb, son of a Michigan City firefighter, and Taylor said they ran to the house and ushered six people out and across the street.

 

"As soon as I got one of them out, they'd go back in and get more stuff," Neulieb said, adding that all of them were Asian and none spoke English.

 

One man stranded on the first-story roof leaped off and landed on the sidewalk, Taylor and Neulieb said. Like several others, he fled. Taylor said two others-a man and a woman-drove off in a car, moments after a police officer arrived.

 

Diane Pannell, who lives next to the house, said Neulieb awoke her by pounding on her door. When she ran to the back alley, she saw what she thought was the start of the fire burning on a shed about 3 feet behind the house.

 

The house had been occupied by a large number of Asians for more than a decade, neighbors said.

 

Ann Costello, like others in the modest, trim neighborhood of older homes, said residents of the house rarely socialized with others.

 

"You never saw them unless they were mowing the grass or trying to get a better signal on their cell phone," she said. "If you waved to say hi, they'd wave and say hi."

 

Others said the house was an eyesore, with sheets for curtains, knee-high grass, no screens on windows, doors ajar and laundry hung out windows.

 

"It's sad," Costello said, watching crews sift through the charred interior of the house. "It's a terrible, terrible loss. It makes my stomach turn."

 

tgregory@tribune.com

 

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. -- A fire killed four people early Sunday in a house where about a dozen people lived, some of them bedding down in closets, the state fire marshal said.

 

The cause of the fire had not been determined. Witnesses reported that several people rushed out of the house before officials arrived, Indiana Fire Marshal Roger D. Johnson said.

 

Immigration officials had been to the scene, said Charles Greis, Michigan City's deputy fire chief

[Rex Kickass]

I saw the AP article on this yesterday and I knew right away they were illegals. When you start hearing about mattresses in the kitchen and illegal plywood walls, you know who that's for.

[southsider2k5]

I saw the AP article on this yesterday and I knew right away they were illegals. When you start hearing about mattresses in the kitchen and illegal plywood walls, you know who that's for.

 

That's the samething I thought when I was reading the Trib's version. Its just wierd that they wouldn't mention it, especially when they do mention people fleeing the scene and not returning. To me it leaves out part of the story.

 

In general, it is just really sad that someone would use people like that, and then treat them like subhumans. Not that we ate at that place very often, but I am sure as hell not going in there ever again.

[Rex Kickass]

Did the News-Dispatch ever report on it?

[southsider2k5]

Did the News-Dispatch ever report on it?

 

It started Sunday at 3:30 am, so it missed it, and would be in today's paper. They don't update the on-line version until about noon. I'll let you know what it saids.

[Mplssoxfan]

I don't know what the Tribune's rationale for not mentioning the angle of illegals would be, but I would venture a guess that they didn't have anything verifiable to print it. Also, it's a developing story, so as they get more info, they'll probably add things.

 

Like Rex said, though, there's little doubt that the people living there weren't here legally.

[kapkomet]

It started Sunday at 3:30 am, so it missed it, and would be in today's paper. They don't update the on-line version until about noon. I'll let you know what it saids.

Wow. That takes a long time to hit.

[southsider2k5]

Here is the version from our paper. A lot more details than anyone else... for once.

 

Fire kills 4 in crowded house

 

By Jason Miller, The News-Dispatch

 

Emergency personnel remove a body from the Buffalo Street fire scene. Steven Peterka/The News-Dispatch

 

 

 

 

Neighbors: Others in home fled in vehicle

 

 

Four people died and as many as eight could be missing after an early Sunday morning fire gutted a Buffalo Street home neighbors say housed several Chinese and Hispanic employees of a local Chinese restaurant.

 

 

 

Indiana State Fire Marshal Roger Johnson said early Sunday afternoon the fire began on a back porch at the home, 2021 Buffalo St., which is at Buffalo and Russell streets. The fire department received a call about the fire at 3:38 a.m.

 

Johnson said the fire spread quickly through the house, the interior of which was modified to include between 12 and 15 make-shift sleeping quarters.

 

Closets were being used as sleeping quarters, and several areas were separated into smaller rooms by large pieces of plywood, Johnson said.

 

Neighbors said occupants also slept on mattresses on the kitchen floor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The number of people living inside this house is not what you would equate with a house like this,” Johnson said of the two-story, wood-frame home. “It raises flags, for sure.”

 

Neighbors said up to 15 people likely lived in the house, which had been reported to city officials for its poor living conditions and number of occupants.

 

Johnson confirmed accounts that several of the people living in the home were employed at the Chinese-buffet restaurant Fortune House, 312 W. U.S. 20 in Dunes Plaza.

 

Johnson believes the home was owned by the owner of the restaurant, which was closed Sunday. A handwritten sign stating “we are closed” hung in its front door.

 

According to Johnson, officials had spoken to the owner Sunday.

 

“We've found four bodies right now, and the search is ongoing. We've had mixed reports on additional victims, so we're still looking,” Johnson said.

 

Initially, firefighters were told six people were dead in the house, but as of 4 p.m. Sunday, firefighters felt the four that were found were the only fatalities.

 

Chief Deputy LaPorte County Coroner John Sullivan said the four died of smoke inhalation and likely were between the ages of 15 and 30. A forensic pathologist from South Bend is scheduled to be in Michigan City this morning to perform autopsies on the four bodies.

 

The fire created a great deal of debris and the collapse of part of the second floor, leading investigators to believe additional bodies may have been buried under the rubble.

 

According to an emergency responder at the scene, a thermal-imaging camera allegedly read heat from what the operator thought were two more bodies hidden under debris, shortly after the fire was doused around 5:20 a.m.

 

However, Daryl Westphal, Michigan City Fire Department battalion chief, said the thermal-imaging equipment likely won't be called back to the scene because temperatures throughout the house had been equalized.

 

“We're fairly confident we've found all the victims,” Johnson said.

 

Investigators from the Michigan City Police Department and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms canvassed the area around the house, talking to neighbors to find information on the occupants.

 

They'll also try to find the remaining occupants of the home, who some neighbors said they saw flee the house in a minivan, just as the fire was starting to take hold.

 

“We'll do a cursory look and get an idea what they want in case it goes criminal,” Michigan City Police Chief Ben Neitzel said. “They're still putting the pieces together. I can't comment on any particulars yet.”

 

Johnson was less cautious.

 

“We can't get a firm grasp on how many people were in the house,” he said. “We heard some people fled. I suppose they got out because they didn't want to be connected to the fire.”

 

Michigan City fire officials will hold a press conference today.

 

Cause of deadly blaze under investigation

 

By Jason Miller, The News-Dispatch

 

Fire scene showing the rear of the house, which was engulfed when firefighters arrived. The fire flashed to the front of the house shortly after. Steven Peterka/The News-Dispatch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Investigators likely won't know for a few days what caused the fire that killed four people in a Buffalo Street home Sunday, and making that determination could be difficult due to flammable liquids found in the area where the fire apparently started.

 

 

 

“Do we think it's foul play? Not at this point,” Indiana State Fire Marshal Roger Johnson said. “Are we ruling it out? Absolutely not.”

 

Johnson told The News-Dispatch at the scene Sunday a specially trained dog called in to search for accelerants likely will hit on more than one because the back porch of the home was littered with cans of paint, thinner and other highly flammable liquids.

 

He said determining arson in such conditions will be tough.

 

“There are so many accelerants on the back porch that it will present a real challenge to see where we're at,” Johnson said. “It could have a really confusing effect on the dog and the investigation.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Johnson was first told about the deadly fire early Sunday, he decided to make the more than three-hour trip from Columbus, Ind., to run the investigation himself.

 

At first, he was told 10 people possibly died in the fire.

 

In a mass-fatality case the size of what Johnson was expecting, protocol dictates he not only head up the investigation himself, but alert the Office of Homeland Security and Gov. Mitch Daniels as well.

 

“I came because of the complexity of the call and the sheer numbers they told me,” Johnson said as he stood in the middle of Buffalo Street, watching Michigan City firefighters shovel debris from inside the house. “Because we thought we had six fatalities and possibly four more, at that point, the numbers dictate we brief the administration.

 

Somber onlookers wait as officials recover bodies

 

By Rick A. Richards, The News-Dispatch

 

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and others, watch firefighters work at the front of the house. Steven Peterka/The News-Dispatch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The grim task unfolding at Russell and Buffalo streets early Sunday morning ran counter to the crystal clear blue sky and bright sunshine of this late summer morning.

 

 

 

With a hint of fall in the air, curious onlookers - from neighbors sitting on lawn chairs on their front porch to children on bicycles and teenagers on skateboards - huddled near yellow fire scene tape as four bodies were carefully removed from the charred two-story, wood-frame home at 2021 Buffalo St.

 

The bodies, removed about every 15 minutes staring around 9:30 a.m., were carefully wrapped in blue and white body bags, strapped to a backboard and placed on a city fire truck. The ladder was then slowly lowered to the ground, where members of the coroner's office loaded each body into a waiting SUV.

 

Each time a body was lowered, activity around the scene came to a halt and the whispering and murmuring nearly ceased.

 

The intense heat from the fire melted vinyl siding on an unattached garage behind the house and a minivan parked in the driveway was heavily charred as well. The upper limbs of shade trees around the house were burned and their leaves curled to a crisp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As he looked on, Josh Payne, 26, of 2115 Buffalo St., across the street from the fire scene, said he had been up since the fire was reported at 3:38 a.m.

 

Just before the fire department arrived at 3:41 a.m., Payne said he heard an explosion.

 

Various reports from firefighters and police said as many as 15 people, most of them of Chinese descent, lived in the house.

 

“There were too many people living in that house,” said Payne. “There were at least 12, probably more.”

 

But, said Payne, “There was never any trouble. They never caused a ruckus and you never really heard from them. I'd say they've lived there at least four or five years.”

 

Payne said a young boy who lived in the home used to visit his house to play basketball.

 

As firefighters and the coroner's office went about the grim task of recovering bodies from the upstairs, the crowd outside grew. But through it all, people remained quiet.

 

People quietly talked in groups of three or four. The conversation was the same: What a shame.

 

Fire Chief Ralph Martin said this was the worst fire he could remember in his three decades of service with the department.

 

Mayor Chuck Oberlie, a life-long resident of the city, said he couldn't remember a fire this devastating to ever hit the city.

 

Nearly two years ago, on Nov. 27, 2004, three children died in a fire on Hitchcock Street across from the Indiana State Prison. That blaze claimed the lives of Aiden White, 2, Anthony White, 20 months, and Mark Stephan, 7 months. The LaPorte County Coroner's office said the three children died of smoke inhalation.

 

At a single-story ranch house across Russell Street from the fire, residents sat under a shade tree in the front yard to watch. The family, which preferred not to be identified, also described the residents as quiet.

 

“They kept to themselves,” said a girl in a swing.

 

“You'd see them go to work and come home,” said a man sitting in the front yard.”

 

He said that some time ago a for sale sign was put up in front of the house and he'd considered buying the house. He said he walked over and the residents let him inside for a look around.

 

“It was a mess,” he said. “When I went into the kitchen, I could smell gas.”

 

Indiana State Fire Marshal Roger Johnson said fire investigators will look into the report of a gas smell, as well as several other possibilities.

 

“We've got a while to go in this investigation,” he said.

 

Reporter Jason Miller contributed to this report.

 

Contact City Editor Rick A. Richards at rrichards@thenewsdispatch.com.

[mreye]

Uh-oh. Were they running because they were illegal or something else?

 

 

Fatal fire called 'very suspicious'

 

Immigration officials join investigation

 

 

MICHIGAN CITY | Investigators have labeled the house fire that killed four people Sunday in Michigan City "very suspicious."

 

Robert Dean, chief fire investigator with the Division of Fire & Building Safety of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, said at a news conference Monday that specially trained dogs picked up on the scent of an accelerant on the floor of the house.

 

There was also a report of occupants of the house fleeing from the fire scene.

 

Dean stopped short of calling the fire an arson.

 

He said it appears the fire started on the back porch of the house at 2021 Buffalo St. The lone staircase is located in the rear of the house, which may have blocked an escape for the four men found dead on the second floor of the building, he said.

 

LaPorte County Chief Deputy Coroner John Sullivan said the preliminary cause of death of the men, who ranged in age from 18 to 30, was smoke and soot inhalation. They were burned as well, he said.

 

Two of the four victims were carrying identification cards, though their names were not released Monday because family had not yet been notified, he said. Efforts are still under way to identify the other two men.

 

Autopsies on two of the victims were to have been performed Monday and two on Tuesday, Sullivan said.

 

The residents of the house were of Asian and Hispanic descent and immigration officials are reportedly involved in the investigation. Officials at the news conference would not comment on the group's immigration status.

 

Michigan City Police Chief Ben Neitzel said most of the residents of the house worked at the Fortune House Chinese restaurant at 312 W. U.S. 20 in Michigan City.

 

The home is owned by Zhi Jian Jiang, whose name was listed Sunday on a building permit hanging in the window of the restaurant.

 

Michigan City Fire Marshal Brandon Brooks said the house lacked a smoke detector, which is a violation of the law if it was a rental property.

 

The law requires landlords to provide tenants with working smoke detectors, though the maintenance of that equipment is up to the resident, he said.

[southsider2k5]

Uh-oh. Were they running because they were illegal or something else?

 

That's a real interesting twist. I can't wait to see what the full investigation turns up.

[southsider2k5]

For those who are interested, more of the details are starting to come out...

 

Residents described as hard workers

 

By Jason Miller, The News-Dispatch

 

 

Sources: Those living in house were paid $1,300 in cash per month and got free rent while working more than 50 hours a week at Fortune House restaurant.

 

The residents of a Buffalo Street home in which four people died in a Sunday morning fire did nothing but work and sleep, according to a Mexican national who lived in the house until just last week.

 

“Everybody there was friends. They all worked and lived together for five or six years,” Bambi Reyes Alviari told The News-Dispatch Monday, speaking on behalf of her boyfriend, Moises Ramirez Solano. “It wasn't a very nice house inside. All they did was work and sleep. There wasn't time for anything else.”

 

Alviari said Monday her boyfriend, Solano, a Mexican national, lived in the 2021 Buffalo Street house until five days ago, when the two met and Solano moved in with Alviari.

 

He worked at Fortune House, a Chinese buffet on U.S. 20 in Michigan City, with several Mexican and Chinese residents of the home, which burned early Sunday morning.

 

John Jiang, the owner of Fortune House, also owns the home, which houses many of his employees, investigators said.

 

Calls to Fortune House seeking comment were not returned.

 

Through Alviari, Solano - who speaks little English - said employees live at the house rent-free, as long as they are working at the restaurant. She said most work more than 50 hours a week and have time only to sleep at the home.

 

Temple Ruiz, who is married to a Hispanic man and said she was involved with the lives of the four Mexian residents of the home, said she felt the inhabitants were being painted in a bad light.

 

She said the house wasn't dirty or cluttered and was lived in by people who simply wanted to work, send money home to Mexico and eventually go home, themselves.

 

“They weren't trying to live like kings,” she said. “I don't know how they could make these people sound like pigs, the way they lived.”

 

Ruiz said she's confident the four Mexicans who lived in the home were in the country illegally. She said Jiang paid his employees $1,300 a month in cash.

 

“I was there about a month and a half ago,” said Ruiz, who helped the residents when they had to go to court or to the doctor. “And that house wasn't the way it's being described.”

 

Four people died in the Sunday fire, and witnesses say a number of occupants fled the scene in a van when the fire broke out. The house was inhabited, Solano said, by four Mexicans and between eight and 10 Chinese nationals.

 

Alviari said Solano doesn't know who died in the fire, but fears the dead are Mexican friends that still worked at Fortune House and lived in the home.

 

“He's pretty shook up,” she said. “More of the people in the house were Chinese. But there were four Mexicans who lived upstairs. He's freaking out because these guys were his friends.

 

“He wants to find out who died.”

 

Robert Dean, an investigator with the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, said at a press conference Monday that the four dead were found on the house's second floor.

 

Alviari and Solano last saw two of the Mexican residents of the home just hours before the fire. They picked up two men at the home around 11 p.m. and took them to Crown Liquors, where the men bought a case of Budweiser beer and a bottle of Tequila.

 

It was the first time Alviari had met the men, but said the trip to the liquor store was apparently a regular occurrence.

 

She said they took the men back to the house around 11:30.

 

“We dropped them off. Moises went in for a few minutes, then came out and we left. Everything was good when we were there. But we left and that was the last he saw of them.”

 

Solano left the home and his employ with Fortune House on good terms, Alviari said, describing the move as routine for many Fortune House employees.

 

Solano told Alviari he works for an agency based at 1848 W. Cermak, in Chicago, that finds employees like Solano who are willing to travel the country working at Chinese restaurants.

 

She said Solano left Fortune House to go to another restaurant in another city.

 

“He moved because there was no work for him there, anymore,” Alviari said. “They move around a lot.”

 

Solano couldn't comment more on the “agency” for which he works. He gave Alviari all the information he had on the firm, Alviari said.

 

“He just wants to know. He can't find anything out and he wants to know how his friends are,” she said. “He's happy he moved out, but he wants to know about those guys.”

 

Contact reporter Jason Miller at jmiller@thenewsdispatch.com.

 

 

Neighbors helped in rescue

 

By Kristin Miller, The News-Dispatch

 

A son of a Michigan City Fire Department lieutenant was first on the scene at Sunday's fire at Buffalo and Russell streets that killed four people.

 

Ian Neulieb, 20, son of Lt. Michael Neulieb, said he was there before even the police or fire departments arrived. He had been talking with a neighbor, Nicole Taylor, on Taylor's front porch when the fire started. He lives a block away from where the fire happened at 2021 Buffalo St.

 

He said he ran into the house and pulled six people out before going next door and getting the four residents of that house out.

 

“I got them safe and then watched the house burn,” he said.

 

Taylor said she and Neulieb were talking and he turned around and saw an “orange glow” from where she lives on Manhattan Street. She rushed inside her house and grabbed her cell phone to call 911, running and talking on the phone at the same time.

 

When she got to the house, she said, three people were standing on the porch and another man was running back and forth into and out of the house. A fifth man jumped from the second story and landed on his back on the sidewalk.

 

Neulieb said he wasn't scared as he hurried into the house. “I ran in there because I had to do it,” he said.

 

Taylor, however, was terrified. “I was very scared,” she said. “I was shaking.”

 

The exercise Sunday drove home Neulieb's desire to be a firefighter, he said.

 

Contact reporter Kristin Miller at kmiller@thenewsdispatch.com.

[southsider2k5]

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...LOCAL/608160508

 

Identifying four fire victims difficult

 

Associated Press

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. -- LaPorte County's coroner said Tuesday it could take days or even weeks before his office identifies the bodies of four men who died in a weekend house fire that authorities have called suspicious.

 

 

Autopsies on the four victims -- all Hispanic males -- found that their primary cause of death was smoke and soot inhalation, with secondary burns to the skin and scorched lungs, said LaPorte County Chief Deputy Coroner John Sullivan.

Two of the men who died had identification cards in their wallets, but Sullivan said authorities were withholding their names until he could find family members to notify. The other two men did not have IDs on them, and Sullivan said officials are still working to identify those men.

"It may be days or weeks before we get identification -- if we ever get identification on these individuals," he said.

Sullivan said if the victims were illegal immigrants it may be even more difficult to find out who they are or locate family members. He said if no identifications could be made or family members found, the bodies would be cremated and buried in the city cemetery.

Officials called Sunday's fire suspicious after a dog trained to sniff accelerants detected what could be combustible liquids in the home's ruins.

State fire Marshal Roger Johnson said the investigation into the fatal fire was ongoing.

"We're waiting on lab results from samples taken at the scene," he said.

Investigators found mattresses inside closets of the two-story home, and there appeared to be makeshift rooms with spots for about 12 to 15 people to sleep. Authorities were not sure how many people were in the wood-frame house when the fire broke out about 3:30 a.m.

Neighbors said the people who escaped, whom they described as Asian, left quickly as the house was engulfed in flames.

The four bodies were found upstairs. The fire started in the back of the house and may have prevented the people from escaping by the stairs, which were in the back, authorities said.

Authorities have said no smoke detectors were found in the house. Indiana law requires smoke detectors in rental units.

City police and fire departments, the state Fire Marshal's Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were all investigating.

Immigration officials are working to determine if undocumented workers lived in the house.

AP-CS-08-15-06 1600EDT

[mreye]

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...LOCAL/608160508

 

 

Alviari said Monday her boyfriend, Solano, a Mexican national, lived in the 2021 Buffalo Street house until five days ago, when the two met and Solano moved in with Alviari.

 

5 days? She moves fast, huh?

[Queen Prawn]

You ain't kidding, Eye.

[Texsox]

But, said Payne, “There was never any trouble. They never caused a ruckus and you never really heard from them. I'd say they've lived there at least four or five years.”

 

She said the house wasn't dirty or cluttered and was lived in by people who simply wanted to work, send money home to Mexico and eventually go home, themselves.

 

“They weren't trying to live like kings,” she said. “I don't know how they could make these people sound like pigs, the way they lived.”

 

Ruiz said she's confident the four Mexicans who lived in the home were in the country illegally. She said Jiang paid his employees $1,300 a month in cash.

 

And that probably describes hundreds of thousands of illegals in this country.

 

BTW, some people equate paying cash with not reporting it. That may or may not be true in this case. I was paid cash when I worked for Foot Locker, but of course it was reported. Many retain stores still do that. I did that for my workers as a convienece to them.

 

Sadly, their families may never know what happened to them.