By Maggie Trovato
Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE — A trial is underway for a Baltimore man charged with starting a fire on Stricker Street four years ago that killed three firefighters and raised concerns about Baltimore City Fire Department policy and the city’s vacant home crisis.
James Edwin Barnett, 58, was indicted in December on charges of second-degree arson, second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment.
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The blaze, which broke out in a vacant rowhome on Stricker Street in the city’s Mount Clare neighborhood, killed Baltimore Fire Lt. Paul Butrim, Lt. Kelsey Sadler and EMT/firefighter Kenny Lacayo. The fire also seriously injured EMT/firefighter John McMaster.
Monday, McMaster testified about what he remembered from that day.
“It was quick,” he said about the building collapsing during the fire. “I got pinned immediately.”
McMaster told jurors that he was trapped inside the home, only able to move part of his right arm. He said he began to skip breath, a technique used to save the air in a self-contained breathing apparatus, until he was eventually pulled out about 14 minutes later.
McMaster said he remembered seeing Sadler and Lacayo inside before the collapse. “Brother, we’re good,” he recalled saying to Lacayo after the collapse. “They’re going to get us out of this.”
McMaster was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma with a concussion, smoke inhalation and burns. He said he spent 13 days in hospitals for treatment.
According to charging documents, surveillance footage shows Barnett entering the rear of the rowhome shortly before midnight on Jan. 23, 2022. Footage reportedly shows Barnett “creating several flashes of light inside the first floor of the structure” and then leaving eight minutes later.
Before 6 a.m. the next morning, the entire first and second floors were on fire, charging documents state. Investigators said that no one else was seen entering the home between Barnett leaving and the sustained flames.
Investigators believe the flashes of light were consistent with “periodic flint igniter sparks and the open flame produced by a butane cigarette lighter.”
Charging documents state that Barnett denied setting the fire in an interview with police. Investigators said he told them that he had lived in the vacant home for four to five years.
Monday afternoon, current and former fire personnel, including McMaster, took the stand to share their memories of receiving the call that morning and going to the scene of the fire.
With tears in his eyes, firefighter Michael Shiloh recalled seeing Sadler, Lacayo, McMaster and Butrim inside the home before the collapse. He said he was turning to leave the house when a structural beam pinned him to the ground.
Shiloh said that when people are reported trapped inside the blaze, like in this case, the fire department’s priority is to search for those people and get them out safely. “Regardless, we’re going in,” he said.
When McMaster was on the stand, Jason Rodriguez, Barnett’s attorney, questioned whether he had known that the structure was compromised before going inside. McMaster said he hadn’t been aware of the extent of the damage to the house caused by two previous fires in 2015 and 2016.
In late 2022, a report compiled by a panel of emergency officials found that the city lacked policies on vacant buildings at the time of the fire and that a battalion chief on the scene had been overloaded with duties, leading him to miss critical information on busy radio channels. Following the report’s release, then-Fire Chief Niles Ford resigned.
The deadly fire also brought focus to vacant housing, with the city committing federal rescue funds toward rehabilitation and demolition and stepping up stabilizations and foreclosures on derelict properties.
Along with the criminal case, a federal civil lawsuit has been filed against the city by family members of those killed, claiming negligence, wrongful death and state-created danger.
The criminal trial is scheduled to take three weeks.
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