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Homeless man seen leaving apartment complex before blaze
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Only the front facade of half the apartment complex at 3145 Mt. Pleasant St. in Northwest remains intact. – Andrew Harnik/Examiner
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Four minutes before a blaze was reported that would gut a Mount Pleasant apartment complex in March, security cameras recorded a homeless man who had been banned from the property leaving the scene, according to court records.
The man, who has a long history of mental illness, was charged with unlawful entry.
But the intense nature of the fire consumed any physical evidence that might have been gathered, leaving arson task force officials frustrated in their efforts to close the case.
Officials have not been able to determine the cause of the five-alarm blaze that destroyed the four-story Winston Apartments — 3145 Mount Pleasant St. — NW, and left nearly 200 people homeless.
The fire began before midnight March 12 and lasted well into the morning, gutting the 85 apartment units and collapsing the roof of the Meridian Hill Baptist Church next door.
Early in the investigation, the D.C. Arson Task Force investigators were looking at a 47-year-old homeless man who had been ordered by the courts to stay away from the building after numerous encounters with management, according to government sources and court documents.
But little physical evidence remained in the ruins.
“There are fires that happen that go unsolved because the evidence is completely destroyed,” said D.C. fire department spokesman Alan Etter. “I don’t want to say this is one of them because it remains under investigation.”
The man was captured on security cameras leaving the building’s basement shortly before midnight, according to the March 15 police arrest affidavit.
“Four minutes later, a fire was reported in the basement area,” the report said.
Property managers identified the man as a suspect who had been arrested numerous times in the last year, court records show. The man had been sleeping and urinating in the hallways and was ordered to stay away from the building.
Arson investigators arrested the man on unlawful-entry charges. He was arrested and taken to Southeast Community Hospital lock ward for health reasons.
The man, whom The Examiner has chosen not to name because he has not been charged with arson, was released two weeks later.
Hospital officials determined his condition was poor and not likely to improve. The man suffered heart failure, chronic liver disease, schizophrenia and eroded mental capacity, according to a letter from the hospital’s medical director.
His attorney Betty Ballester said she could not comment but the man was in very poor health.
smccabe@dcexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
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Examiner Reader said:
Scott C Zarnstorff, Fire Marshal we have come to see the value of hardwired interconnected smoke-alrams, for Builders that's now just the normal couse of construction. We have the technology and the over cost for a NFPA 13R sprinkler systerm is nothing in todays market. Let all get together and participate this comming September in Minneapolis at the International Code Counsel Code Hearings and vote for Residental Sprinklers.
3 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Amen! Residential sprinklers should be required in all new residential construction. Those who build homes today don't give a darn about the safety of the families who buy them.
6 agree | 3 disagree
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Frank D. Harrisson, Fire Chief (Ret.) said:
If it was my Fire Department, I would send out the Fire Inspectors on all new construction and note the materials used and the method of construction. If open web wood joist are used in the building and no Fire Suppression System (Sprinklers) installed, my SOP would be No Firefighters Inside. Defensive Tactics and Exposure Protection only. If there is a life in peril get in and get out if deamed prudent or marginally safe. This will not be the last time we read about this. The onus is on the Building Codes, the Insurance Companies, and the community building code officials to come to terms with this issue.
7 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
In order to build bigger houses and increase profits home builders have gone to light weight materials. If we were still building the same smaller homes of 20 to 30 years ago then we would not have the same problem. The light weight materials especially Oriented strand board and vinyl siding are a bad combination and they have significantly contributed to firefighter and civilian deaths and injuries. McMansion fires is a new animal and we need to change our tactics in order to safely and effectively handle them.
6 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Skyrocketing price of lumber? I think not! Lumber prices have been in the tank for over 18 months. Where did you get this bit of information?
2 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The simple answer, and one that has been opposed heavily by the building industry, is to require that houses be sprinkled. In this instance, if a sprinkler system had been installed, the family would have suffered a couple of hundred dollars in water damage and nothing more. There has never been a loss of life in a building with a properly operating sprinkler system. These systems provide immediate fire suppression at the site of the fire and can be designed so that they flow as little water as is needed to extinguish the fire, and no more. It requires that the State and County Commissioners stand up for thier citizens and say that no loss of life makes up for the $1,500 - $2,000 it would cost for a sprinkler system. What is worse, while the builder would have to raise the cost of the house to match the increased cost, the cost would be paid back in lowered fire insurance and taxes, since the need for fire fighters would be reduced.
10 agree | 1 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
There were two working smoke detectors in the house at the time. One on the first floor just inside the front door burned out by the fire and a second that was knocked out of the brackets by the fire department to the floor on the second floor. God I wish the media would get their facts right. (Family member)
85 agree | 86 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
and the smirking face seen pictured doesn't go unnoticed by those that aren't yet wondering what planned questions someday will be asked concerning what is tied to that. but yet the smoke bellowed black.
63 agree | 64 disagree
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