The Cattaraugus County Fire Investigation Team, headed by Christopher Baker at the time of my brother Mark’s death, filed an Origin and Cause Report consisting of two pages, with a line-by-line series of preset items followed by a section which in two relatively brief paragraphs summarizes the “Actions taken by Investigators.” A link to the Fire Investigator’s report can be found here under “Official Documents.” This post considers specific determinations made by the fire investigators that seem especially at odds with an explanation by Mr. Baker, as relayed to me by a local reporter.
The Cattaraugus County website does not offer much information about the specific duties of the Fire Investigation Team (CATTFIT). It does indicate that seven members are volunteers from the county fire service and that the eighth is a member of the Sheriff's Office, who “is responsible for maintaining all the fire investigation records, assisting with follow-up investigation on all fires and preparing arson cases for court proceedings, and other day-to-day operations of the Team.”
There are no directives specific to vehicle fires. But the CATTFIT Guidelines page of the county’s website briefly mentions relevant information, as follows verbatim:
“2. Investigators will need information from first firefighters on scene such as: A) Where was the fire located?... and D) Were there possible tire tracks or footprints in the area? 4. The fire investigation team will attempt to determine the origin and cause of all fires.”
The first page of the Fire Investigator’s report with the line-by-line items indicates that Christopher Baker took photos of the scene. The narrative section of the report is very brief about their findings on the scene the night of the fire. The first paragraph indicates that besides taking a “cursory walk around the scene from areas of least to most devastation,” the fire investigators found the remains of a gasoline can on the passenger’s side floor of my brother’s truck.
The second paragraph summarizes their efforts the next day at the N.Y.S.P. crime lab, where the truck had been transported, to try to determine “cause and origin” of the truck fire. They observed heavy damage to the driver’s side front seat and floor and lesser damage to the passenger’s side, where they found a lighter as well as the remains of the gas can. (The lighter was presumably metal, since the plastic gas can had melted.)
The team determined that the fire started in the driver’s side and spread through the firewall into the engine compartment and that it spread laterally to the passenger’s side. In checking fluid levels, they found that the gas tank was about three-quarters full. Their conclusion was that the fire “was caused by human element.” The report then states that the investigation was turned over to N.Y.S.P. Inv. Edward Kalfas.
The Fire Investigator’s report thus does not attempt to explain the “human element” responsible for starting the fire, i.e., if it was set by accident or by arson. The fire investigators spent over three hours on the scene the night of the fire. (They state two conflicting times of arrival, 23:06 on the first page and 22:30 on the second, but the first must be correct since the alarm went out to the firefighters at about 23:00, i.e., 11 p. m.) The report does not make it clear what they did in those three plus hours, but Christopher Baker must have spent a fair amount of time taking photographs of the truck and of the scene after the fire was extinguished.
By the time the fire investigation team arrived on the scene, EMT Cheryl Simcox and members of the Kill Buck and Great Valley fire departments had already arrived: first Gary Wind, followed by Mark Ward (both of whom gave witness statements), and then Wayne Frank. N.Y.S.P. Trooper David Chandler was on the scene before 11:30 (the time when he began his interview of Mark’s wife Susan). According to Gary Wind’s witness statement, the fire department extinguished the vehicle fire and secured the scene for the fire investigation team. When Inv. Edward Kalfas arrived at 12:30 a.m., according to his narrative in the police report, N.Y.S.P. Sgt. Frankowski and the fire investigation team were already there. Inv. Kalfas states that Sgt. Frankowski took 38 photographs of the scene.
Baker and the other members of the team presumably noticed the remnants of Mark’s burned clothing about sixty feet from the truck, where my brother himself had been found with two-foot flames shooting from his body when EMT Cheryl Simcox arrived on the scene. In a list of items taken from the scene in his narrative for the night of the fire, Inv. Kalfas mentions “portions of burnt clothing from the victim.” The team then should have also noticed, confirmed by the photographs, that there was no fire trail leading from the truck, which had been engulfed in flames, to the place where Mark was discovered lying on fire in the field (a property that he did not own) across from his house.
(3) the specific position of the truck, which had been backed down his driveway and thus faced Mark’s property, since Mark was found sixty feet away from the passenger’s side door, which was closed, while the driver’s side door was open, making it implausible that my brother, on fire, went around the truck to the other side and ran from there;
The team determined that the fire started in the driver’s side and spread through the firewall into the engine compartment and that it spread laterally to the passenger’s side. In checking fluid levels, they found that the gas tank was about three-quarters full. Their conclusion was that the fire “was caused by human element.” The report then states that the investigation was turned over to N.Y.S.P. Inv. Edward Kalfas.
The Fire Investigator’s report thus does not attempt to explain the “human element” responsible for starting the fire, i.e., if it was set by accident or by arson. The fire investigators spent over three hours on the scene the night of the fire. (They state two conflicting times of arrival, 23:06 on the first page and 22:30 on the second, but the first must be correct since the alarm went out to the firefighters at about 23:00, i.e., 11 p. m.) The report does not make it clear what they did in those three plus hours, but Christopher Baker must have spent a fair amount of time taking photographs of the truck and of the scene after the fire was extinguished.
By the time the fire investigation team arrived on the scene, EMT Cheryl Simcox and members of the Kill Buck and Great Valley fire departments had already arrived: first Gary Wind, followed by Mark Ward (both of whom gave witness statements), and then Wayne Frank. N.Y.S.P. Trooper David Chandler was on the scene before 11:30 (the time when he began his interview of Mark’s wife Susan). According to Gary Wind’s witness statement, the fire department extinguished the vehicle fire and secured the scene for the fire investigation team. When Inv. Edward Kalfas arrived at 12:30 a.m., according to his narrative in the police report, N.Y.S.P. Sgt. Frankowski and the fire investigation team were already there. Inv. Kalfas states that Sgt. Frankowski took 38 photographs of the scene.
Baker and the other members of the team presumably noticed the remnants of Mark’s burned clothing about sixty feet from the truck, where my brother himself had been found with two-foot flames shooting from his body when EMT Cheryl Simcox arrived on the scene. In a list of items taken from the scene in his narrative for the night of the fire, Inv. Kalfas mentions “portions of burnt clothing from the victim.” The team then should have also noticed, confirmed by the photographs, that there was no fire trail leading from the truck, which had been engulfed in flames, to the place where Mark was discovered lying on fire in the field (a property that he did not own) across from his house.
In their time on the scene, the team members presumably walked from the field over to Mark’s property and noticed, as at least two firefighters did, the pool of Mark’s blood in the area off the main driveway where my brother normally parked his truck. In his narrative for the night of the fire, Inv. Kalfas also lists two cotton swabs with blood taken from the victim’s driveway and secured, to be sent to the N.Y.S.P. crime lab in Albany. Did Baker photograph the blood?
Did Baker also photograph the tire marks that at least one firefighter noticed just off the driveway leading down Mark’s property to the field? The team members should have been puzzled as to why and how Mark’s truck went from his own parking area down his long driveway and then fifty feet into the field across the road.
The Fire Investigator’s report is certainly not incorrect in attributing the fire to “human element.” But a local reporter back in December 2004 relayed to me a shocking explanation for the fire that he said came from an interview with a fire official in November. According to John Eberth, at that time a reporter for the Olean Times Herald, Christopher Baker told him that he believed the fire was an accident, possibly caused by Mark falling asleep with a cigarette in his hand.
Could my brother possibly have fallen asleep with a cigarette in his hand in the driver’s seat, which had been saturated with gasoline, and with an open gas can on the floor of the passenger’s side? That explanation defies logic: it makes no sense that Mark fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand if the seat was already soaked with gasoline.
A far more plausible scenario can be constructed from suggestions by an independent criminologist, a forensic pathologist, and other professionals concerned about the following:
(1) the lack of a fire trail, which Mark would have to have left if he crawled away from the truck in flames;
(2) the presence of Mark’s truck fifty feet into the field across from his house, where he had no reason to put it;
Did Baker also photograph the tire marks that at least one firefighter noticed just off the driveway leading down Mark’s property to the field? The team members should have been puzzled as to why and how Mark’s truck went from his own parking area down his long driveway and then fifty feet into the field across the road.
The Fire Investigator’s report is certainly not incorrect in attributing the fire to “human element.” But a local reporter back in December 2004 relayed to me a shocking explanation for the fire that he said came from an interview with a fire official in November. According to John Eberth, at that time a reporter for the Olean Times Herald, Christopher Baker told him that he believed the fire was an accident, possibly caused by Mark falling asleep with a cigarette in his hand.
Could my brother possibly have fallen asleep with a cigarette in his hand in the driver’s seat, which had been saturated with gasoline, and with an open gas can on the floor of the passenger’s side? That explanation defies logic: it makes no sense that Mark fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand if the seat was already soaked with gasoline.
A far more plausible scenario can be constructed from suggestions by an independent criminologist, a forensic pathologist, and other professionals concerned about the following:
(1) the lack of a fire trail, which Mark would have to have left if he crawled away from the truck in flames;
(2) the presence of Mark’s truck fifty feet into the field across from his house, where he had no reason to put it;
(3) the specific position of the truck, which had been backed down his driveway and thus faced Mark’s property, since Mark was found sixty feet away from the passenger’s side door, which was closed, while the driver’s side door was open, making it implausible that my brother, on fire, went around the truck to the other side and ran from there;
(4) the presence of the gas can on the floor of the passenger’s side of his truck, where Mark never put gas cans;
(5) the extremely serious third-degree burns over ninety percent of his body, which would not have been mitigated even though Mark had apparently pulled most of his clothes off, indicating that Mark had been fully doused with gasoline and contradicting the theory of the N.Y.S.P. that he had deliberately poured or accidentally spilled gasoline on himself in the truck;
(6) the wound to his forehead observed by two firefighters on the scene and confirmed by his attending physician at the burn unit (who also found soft-tissue damage to the left side of Mark’s face); and
(7) the pool of Mark’s blood found in his driveway area the night of the fire.
Here is a possible scenario that fits the facts: Mark was attacked in the area of his driveway when he returned home from a neighbor’s house shortly before the fire (on his presence at a neighbor’s, see post of August 11, 2014). He was then placed in the truck (possibly in the back of it), which was backed down the driveway and into the field. He was then dragged away from the truck, doused with gasoline, and set on fire. His attacker or attackers then opened the passenger’s side door, placed the gas can on the floor, threw in the lighter, slammed the door shut, and ran off to the vehicle in which they had arrived and lain in wait for my brother.
(5) the extremely serious third-degree burns over ninety percent of his body, which would not have been mitigated even though Mark had apparently pulled most of his clothes off, indicating that Mark had been fully doused with gasoline and contradicting the theory of the N.Y.S.P. that he had deliberately poured or accidentally spilled gasoline on himself in the truck;
(6) the wound to his forehead observed by two firefighters on the scene and confirmed by his attending physician at the burn unit (who also found soft-tissue damage to the left side of Mark’s face); and
(7) the pool of Mark’s blood found in his driveway area the night of the fire.
Here is a possible scenario that fits the facts: Mark was attacked in the area of his driveway when he returned home from a neighbor’s house shortly before the fire (on his presence at a neighbor’s, see post of August 11, 2014). He was then placed in the truck (possibly in the back of it), which was backed down the driveway and into the field. He was then dragged away from the truck, doused with gasoline, and set on fire. His attacker or attackers then opened the passenger’s side door, placed the gas can on the floor, threw in the lighter, slammed the door shut, and ran off to the vehicle in which they had arrived and lain in wait for my brother.
