City's handling of motel fire questioned at sentencing
Frick said the health of her late husband, Ben, "declined at warp speed" after he received a nearly
"No matter how fast he was trying to clean it up, it was not nearly fast enough for the city," she said. "He thought he had your arson fire mess pretty well cleaned up, but the city did not."
Frick also alleged fire and police officials weren't thoroughly investigating a series of small arson fires that occurred on property owned by the Fricks "because they were convinced that all the fires were set by Ben to collect fire insurance, of which we had none."
She said city officials were looking for evidence of insurance fraud when they placed cameras in the area.
She also alleged that firefighters could have put out the fire but instead allowed the building and contents to burn to the ground, without allowing pet cats or other property to be retrieved before the flames spread to her daughter's apartment.
Not how it played out
Fire Marshal
"I guess If I was sitting on her side of the fence, with the amount of time it took to get the fire under control, that might be what it looked like, but that's not how it played out," Williams said.
He said debris and overgrown trees and brush on the property prevented the kind of access firefighters needed to effectively fight the blaze. When they couldn't get in front of it, they ultimately had to let it burn out and prevent it from spreading in a "surround and drown" operation with aerial trucks pumping water onto the flames from the corners of the motel, he said.
"We're not going to put our firefighters in harm's way for property's sake," Williams said.
Rescued one of the cats
He denied that
Williams said it also was not safe to allow the Frick family to re-enter the building.
"Did she mention that I personally went in the apartment and got one of the cats and her purse?" he said. "I went back in and tried to find the other cats, but they were nowhere to be found. The apartment was full of smoke. Fire was spreading, and conditions just weren't safe."
-- Reporter
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