“Who Was on the Scene of Mark’s Truck Fire?”

   This post considers what specific individuals were on the scene of my brother’s truck fire on September 23, 2003.  The issue needs clarification because of reports about people on the scene who are not mentioned in the official documents and whose presence raises some questions. 

    As the original post (September 22, 2010) indicates, emergency workers responded quickly to the 911 call made by Mark’s wife Susan just before 11 p.m.  According to the police report, neighbor and EMT Cheryl Simcox was the first person on the scene after my brother’s wife, followed by firefighters Gary Wind (also a deputy sheriff) and Mark Ward.  Although not mentioned in the police report, firefighter Wayne Frank informed me that he arrived immediately after Ward and Wind.  The police report also indicates that Trooper David Chandler was the first New York State Police official on the scene and that Inv. Edward Kalfas arrived at 12:30 a.m.  According to the fire investigation team’s report, there were also four fire investigators on the scene.  That report, however, makes an apparent error about the arrival time, recording it as 22:30 (i.e., 10:30 p.m.) presumably instead of 23:30 (i.e., 11:30), since the 911 call was not made before 22:55 (i.e., 10:55). 

    According to both Wayne Frank and Cheryl Simcox, there were many people milling around on the scene.  As the original post notes, one person was neighbor Dan Smith, who informed me that he had rushed to the scene right after seeing flames from his window but had not remained there long.  The previous post (November 30, 2011) refers more fully to Mr. Smith’s statement that my brother had spoken several words to him on the scene and to his failure to recall anything Mark said other than the word “Hi!”  An earlier post (April 20, 2011) also mentions the conflicting accounts about neighbor Eugene Woodworth’s presence on the scene.  Another individual was Josh Newark, who as an EMT reportedly helped place my brother in the ambulance that took him to the Medivac helicopter for transport to the Erie County Medical Center.  But when I tried to speak with him in 2006, Mr. Newark failed to return my call.  Another person mentioned was Shawn Gregory.  I do not know who this individual is or in what capacity he was on the scene, though he is reportedly a deputy sheriff.

    Two other individuals reportedly on the scene were members of the Salamanca police force around the time of my brother’s death.  One was Steve Arrowsmith, reportedly an Ellicottville policeman at the time his presence on the scene was made known to me.  But, according to an item in the Salamanca Press shortly after Mark’s death, Mr. Arrowsmith was then a member of the Salamanca police force.  The other was Patrick Welch, who according to the same newspaper item, was likewise on the Salamanca police force.  Todd Lindell, one of my brother’s friends, informed me in early November 2003 that after being released from his DWI, my brother came over to his house and asked him to pick up his truck from the impoundment.  Lindell mentioned that Patrick Welch had driven Mark over.  He added that Welch was also “the third person” on the scene of the fire the next night.

    It is unclear to me why these two individuals who were Salamanca policemen around that time would have been on the scene of the truck fire in Great Valley.  It is a matter of concern under the particular circumstances, since the day before the truck fire my brother got into a personal argument at the Holy Cross Athletic Club with off-duty Salamanca police officer Mark Marowski.  As mentioned in both the original post and a later one (July 28, 2011), when my brother left the club, Marowski called in to the Salamanca police to pick up him up for DWI on his way home to Great Valley.  The original post also reports the following comment to me by Todd Lindell: "Mark would be alive today if he had not gotten the DWI."  Given the DWI under such troubling circumstances a day before my brother's suspicious truck fire, the presence of Salamanca police on the scene of the fire is problematic.  Furthermore, a relative mentioned not long after the incident that the Salamanca police were being very tight-lipped about my brother's death.  That seemed very odd since Mark had lived in the area all of his life apart from his army service, during which he served in Vietnam, and since he was active in community service.  Even D.A. Sharkey's investigator at the time of the truck fire, Michael Malak, acknowledged to me in a telephone conversation that my brother was well regarded in the community.

    At the time of the truck fire, according to Todd Lindell, Patrick Welch was also a friend of my brother’s son Brian and possibly of his daughter Christie as well.  After my brother’s death, several relatives mentioned that they had observed very rude behavior toward Mark by his two children and on numerous occasions had heard them, especially Brian, make very nasty remarks to their father.  According to Lindell, Mark was not happy about the way his children treated him.  Lindell insisted that my brother had not brought on this problem and added that he himself had never known anyone who did so much for his children as Mark. 

    With that background, it is difficult to understand why Brian’s friend Patrick Welch would have driven Mark over to Lindell’s house the evening of the DWI.  How did he even meet up with my brother that evening?  It is also difficult to understand why Welch would have been on the scene of the truck fire the next night.  If he was in fact one of the first on the scene (as Lindell thought, “the third person”), how did he learn about the fire so quickly?  How long did he remain on or around the scene?  What brought the other Salamanca policeman, Steve Arrowsmith, to the scene?