By Dustin Brown
Two teenagers who accidentally ignited the Astoria hardware store fire that killed three firemen will not be criminally charged for the incident, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Tuesday.
Brown refused to comment on the possibility of charges eventually being brought against the store owners, however, who stored combustible materials in a basement unprotected by fire sprinklers.
The fire, which erupted on Father’s Day at the Long Island General Supply store at 12-22 Astoria Blvd., produced a massive explosion that killed firefighters Harry Ford, 50, of Rescue Co. 4, John J. Downing, 40, of Ladder Co. 163, and Brian Fahey, 46, of Rescue Co. 4. Fifty-nine people were injured in the blast, two seriously.
Brown disclosed the decision at a news conference Tuesday in the Queens district attorney’s office, confirming widespread speculation that the two teens would not be charged because they did not purposefully start the fire.
“It has been established to our satisfaction that it began accidentally — that it was not started intentionally,” Brown said.
A joint investigation by the Fire and Police Departments found that the fire was started when a 13-year-old boy from the neighborhood knocked over a can of gasoline in the backyard of the store where he and a 15-year-old friend from the Bronx were spraying graffiti. The gasoline trickled down a ramp and into the hardware store basement, where it was rapidly ignited by the pilot light of a water heater.
Brown said the youths could only be charged if “they acted intentionally in setting the fire or they acted in a manner so depraved or reckless as to be totally devoid of any consideration for human life.”
“That clearly was not the case,” Brown said.
The district attorney’s decision was the latest development in an ongoing investigation that will now focus on the fire safety concerns in the store, such as building conditions and the storage of volatile chemicals.
Brown refused to comment on the possibility that charges could be filed against store owners Randall and Robert Gordon.
“I would not be prepared to speculate at this juncture,” Brown said.
Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen had said shortly after the fire that Astoria General was not equipped with a basement sprinkler system despite a 1960s regulation requiring such sprinklers in all commercial buildings that store flammable materials. Because of the age of the 75-year-old, family-owned store, the basement was most likely grandfathered into the law, allowing it to avoid compliance with new sprinkler regulations, the fire commissioner said.
According to a detailed account of the fire provided by Chief Fire Marshal Lou Garcia Tuesday, firefighters were called to the scene by the older child’s father, who lives in a basement apartment that opens into a yard shared with the hardware store.
The call came in at 2:20 p.m. on June 17 after the father had spent five minutes trying to put out the blaze himself. The explosion occurred nearly half an hour later at 2:48 p.m.
Garcia said the basement was filled with an extensive supply of combustible materials, including hundreds of gallons of flammable painting liquids, 350 cans of spray paint and six 14-ounce cans of propane, much of which was released into the air as a result of the fire’s intense heat.
Garcia said the building was sealed so tightly at the windows and doors that the oxygen was used up and the active flames began to end. The explosion occurred almost immediately after firefighters had forced open side windows and a back door to ventilate the building, which allowed oxygen to flow inside and feed the flames.
Ford and Downing died of traumatic injuries when a side wall collapsed on top of them as they were removing the windows, while Fahey died of carbon monoxide poisoning when he was trapped in the basement following the explosion, Garcia said.
First Deputy Fire Commissioner William Feehan said firefighters were not intent on seeking retribution for the fire, as they all recognize the hazards that come with the job.
“If you knew these firefighters, they’re the last people in the world who would want to make someone pay for what was obviously an accident,” he said.
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
