6 charged in NY care home fire where firefighter, resident died

Associated Press

SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. — Six people are facing charges ranging from arson and manslaughter to filing a false instrument and criminal impersonation in connection to a fire at an assisted living facility in a New York City suburb earlier this year that killed a firefighter and a facility resident, authorities said Tuesday.

Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Walsh declined to go into specifics at a press conference, but said a father and son, Nathaniel Sommer and Aaron Sommer, were both facing manslaughter, assault and arson charges in connection to the March 23 fire at the Evergreen Court Home for Adults in Spring Valley, New York.

Walsh said the Sommers were arraigned on Tuesday morning and due back in court on July 2. No attorney information was immediately available for them.

Two other men who Walsh said worked in the town’s buildings department at the time of the fire were charged with filing false documents and falsifying business records, while a woman who worked at the facility was facing a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment and another man faced a misdemeanor criminal impersonation charge.

Asked for more information, Walsh said, “We don’t want to get into any details until the matter has been presented to the grand jury and perhaps not even until the trial.”

He said the investigation was still ongoing.

Volunteer firefighter Jared Lloyd was killed in the fire. The father of two boys was last heard making a mayday call, and was in the building when it collapsed. A male resident of the facility was also killed.

[Listen to the radio traffic from the scene]