By Danny Robbins
The Associated Press
DALLAS — A state investigation found 18 fire code violations at an East Texas homeless shelter where five men died in a blaze earlier this year, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.
Problems at the Christians in Action shelter in Paris included a lack of smoke detectors and proper exits, a report by the state fire marshal’s office said. Thirty men were sleeping in makeshift cubicles when the shelter burned to the ground in the early-morning hours of Jan. 5.
The report said the Lamar County district attorney’s office will review the matter to see if criminal negligence was involved.
Gary Young, county and district attorney for Lamar County, declined to comment, saying he hadn’t seen the report. Paris Fire Chief Ronnie Grooms, whose office requested the investigation, declined to comment Monday.
A copy of the document, completed May 20, was obtained by the AP through a request under the Texas Public Information Act.
Larry Dixon, whose brother Derrial was among those who died, said he would welcome an investigation by the district attorney.
“Justice has not been met because nobody is saying who’s actually liable and I know somebody has to be liable,” he said.
The report details how men slept in wooden cubicles built into a warehouse-style structure cluttered with donated clothing that lacked sprinklers and the required number of exits.
The men who died were discovered in an upper level of cubicles that afforded “minimal” means of egress, according to Jim Lindholm, the state’s investigator.
Lindholm wrote that the fire started in a 5-foot high pile of clothing that was “boxed in” by some of the cubicles, but he could not determine its cause.
Lindholm noted that most of the men in the facility smoked and were careless in how they disposed of their cigarettes. He also stated that a lamp that had been positioned near the clothing could not be examined because it had been removed.
Don Walker, the founder of the nonprofit organization that owned and operated the facility, said Monday that smoking was not allowed in the building. He said battery-operated smoke detectors had been installed, but the men were constantly removing the devices so they could smoke.
Walker said his organization, Seed Sewers Christians in Action, did the best it could with little funding and would have upgraded the facility if the fire department had ordered it.
“If (the fire department) would have told me I needed these kind of things, I would have done everything in my power (to follow their instructions),” he said. “Of course, even with that, you’ve got to have money to do it.”
Lindholm said in his report that the shelter hadn’t been inspected since 2005. Grooms, the Paris fire chief, told the AP in February that cuts in budget and personnel had forced his department to limit its fire inspections.