By Pamela Lehman
The Morning Call
Copyright 2006 The Morning Call, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A video shot by Bethlehem firefighters minutes before a fast-moving fire destroyed a former silk mill undergoing a $15 million renovation may help investigators in the case they have labeled as an arson.
It’s a rare piece of evidence that shows the first stages of the March 24 blaze that Bethlehem fire officials believe was set in at least two places in the building.
As one fire burned in the middle of the first floor, a second fire had also been set on the ground floor, said Bethlehem Deputy Fire Commissioner Robert Novatnack.
During a news conference Tuesday afternoon, fire and police officials said the fire was an arson. They reached out to the public to help solve the case.
Novatnack declined to say what led officials to determine the fire had been intentionally set, but a Fire Department report released Tuesday may point to some clues: Pieces of metal fence surrounding the construction site had been removed from their posts and locks on the fence had been cut.
For more than eight months, police and fire officials have awaited test results on hundreds of pieces of charred wood, melted plastic and twisted metal at the 120-year-old former mill that was being renovated into 120 college apartments by Ashley Development Corp.
Bethlehem fire officials and police believe the fire was intentionally set, but that ruling conflicts with the building’s insurance investigators who say the cause is accidental, said building owner Lou Pektor, president of Ashley Development.
“When you have such a large fire scene as this, a lot of the evidence goes up in smoke,” said Bethlehem police Detective Mark DiLuzio, the lead investigator in the case.
“The heat, the flames, the water used to put out the fire -- all those factors are eliminating a lot of the evidence at the scene.”
Police have made no arrests and declined to comment on whether they have any suspects in the case.
“This investigation has gone from being one of just a fire scene and is now a crime scene,” DiLuzio said.
Bethlehem firefighters reached the scene of the silk mill blaze probably minutes after it began.
Crews were just returning from a fire call at Pierce Street when the call came around 5:30 a.m. about a column of black smoke rising from 238 W. Goepp St.
Investigators are still reviewing the video shot by firefighters, and hundreds of photos taken by both police officers and firefighters.
“Our main interest is finding out the truth of what happened,” Novatnack said.
He declined to say if there was any evidence that an accelerant -- such as gasoline -- was used or what exactly led fire officials to label the fire an arson. The state police crime lab still is conducting chemical tests on pieces of evidence, DiLuzio said.
The fire caused at least $8 million in damage, but the college apartment project will continue, said Pektor, who’s hoping to begin construction in June and open the building by August 2008.
Pektor said he has already received a multimillion-dollar insurance settlement, but wouldn’t give the amount.