Just as Cook County’s investigation into last year’s deadly Loop high-rise fire was intensifying, city lawyers have canceled interviews of two key Chicago firefighters and backed out of a promise to provide the author of a much-debated Fire Department report.
The moves come just weeks after Abner Mikva, head of the county-appointed panel investigating the Oct. 17 blaze at 69 W. Washington St., made pointed comments questioning whether the Fire Department could support its claim that the blaze, which killed six people, was started by a person.
The city’s decision also comes after several Chicago firefighters provided potentially damaging testimony before the panel in recent weeks, including several ranking department members who told of communication breakdowns that might have hindered their ability to rescue survivors.
George Ellison, an attorney for the panel, said that by shutting access to the firefighters, the city is hurting the investigation.
“How can a party that is being investigated dictate how the investigation should proceed?” Ellison said.
The lack of cooperation from the city, Ellison said, “can certainly affect the commission’s ability to get a complete picture of the Fire Department’s role in this fire.”
Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Law, said the city has not canceled all interviews, just those that were scheduled for Friday.
Hoyle said the city is not trying to hide anything but said the panel’s interviews have become a drain on city resources. Union rules, she said, state that if one person is missing from a Fire Department company, the whole company of four or five people cannot work.
“We had two interviews that were canceled,” Hoyle said. “We had already done 18 interviews, and each time we do that, we have to pull a whole fire company out of service. … This is an ongoing burden on public resources.”
Daniel Truesdale and Raul DeLeon, the firefighters scheduled to be interviewed Friday by the panel’s attorneys, were among the first to arrive in the southeast stairwell, from which the 12th-floor fire was fought and where the six people who died were found.
The two firefighters’ testimony could provide important details about what happened inside the Cook County administration building.
All six people who died were found on the southeast stairs, more than 90 minutes after the fire was first reported. At the last panel hearing, on Feb. 13, firefighter Billy Latham became the first firefighter to testify that he had seen civilians coming down the southeast stairwell, raising questions about why the stairwell had not been searched earlier.
The question for Truesdale and DeLeon, Ellison said, “is whether they heard or saw any civilians on the southeast stairwell.”
The city also has decided not to let Terry Sheppard, the author of its Office of Fire Investigation report, be interviewed by the panel’s lawyers or to testify in a panel hearing.
The report, which has not been made public, found that the fire was “incendiary,” meaning it was stated by a person. The report does not say whether the blaze was intentionally set or an accident but, according to a summary of the findings, says it was fueled by gasoline and ignited by an open flame.
Using the office report as his basis, Cook County Medical Examiner Dr. Edmund Donoghue ruled the six deaths as homicides.
Some investigators have privately questioned the office report’s findings, and the Police Department has not ruled the fire arson.
In an interview with the Tribune two weeks ago, Mikva, a former appellate court judge, called Sheppard’s report “a little skimpy” and said the Fire Department had shown his panel nothing to corroborate the finding that the fire was started by a person.
Fire Commissioner James Joyce responded swiftly, appearing before Mikva’s panel Feb. 10, threatening to stop his chief officers from testifying unless panel members assured him they had not prejudged the Fire Department’s actions.
After panel members promised to keep an open mind, Ellison told Joyce “the easiest way to get to the bottom of this whole arson issue is for a full and fair investigation, and that includes a full and fair response by the city through the fire commission.”
At that hearing, Ellison said the city had agreed to allow the panel to interview Sheppard. He then asked Joyce whether he would allow Sheppard to testify for the commission.
“We’ve been in favor all along of an open investigation, yes,” Joyce said at the time. “We welcome that.”
But Hoyle said Sheppard would not be interviewed and would not testify before the panel.
“The cause and origin of this fire is a subject of a criminal investigation,” Hoyle said. “There’s certain information that should not be made public now because of the ongoing investigation.”
Hoyle said the city has asked Mikva’s panel to provide a full list of the people it wants to interview and the documents it wants to obtain.
Ellison said it is impossible to know who might be called to testify in the future, because new names pop up during interviews and hearings.
In the meantime, the city has not responded to the panel’s request to speak to four other city employees, including three firefighters.
Mikva, reached at his home Saturday, downplayed the dispute.
“We have gotten cooperation from the Fire Department so far, and we contemplate that we will continue to get it,” he said. “I’m not concerned so far, and we have other witnesses to call next week.”
Mikva noted his panel is not conducting a criminal investigation and said it would not interfere with other probes.
If his panel has problems getting cooperation from the city in the future, it could seek subpoenas from the state’s attorney’s office. At a panel hearing in December, Cook County State’s Atty. Richard Devine said he would support subpoena power for the panel if needed.
Mikva said Saturday he did not think that would be necessary.
“Everyone ought to be on the same page here,” Mikva said.
