State and county fire investigators join Porter Firefighters at the scene of fatal house fire this morning.                    (Tribune photo by Margaret Willis)

By KEVIN NEVERS

A man was found dead today at the scene of a house fire in the 300 block of South 23rd Street in Porter.

As of deadline the name of the victim had not been released, but after the Tribune went to press Porter Police identified the deceased as Laurence T. Hanna, 42. An autopsy was scheduled for this afternoon in South Bend.

Porter Fire Chief Lewis Craig was at the scene of the fire this morning, was unable to speak to the Chesterton Tribune, and did not return a call.

The Porter County Fire Investigation Strike Team (FIST) and a State Fire Marshal were also at the scene, but FIST Director Jim Branham said that the investigation was still in its early stages and that no information about the cause of the fire was yet available.

This much is known, however. At 3:58 a.m. both the Porter and Chesterton fire departments were toned out under an automatic aid agreement between the two. Under the terms of that agreement, the PFD responds automatically to any structure fire in the Town of Chesterton, and the CFD is supposed to respond automatically to any structure fire in the Town of Porter.

For some time, though, perhaps as long as two years, and at Craig’s specific request, the CFD has not, per the agreement, responded automatically to structure fires in Porter, Chesterton Fire Chief Warren “Skip” Highwood told the Tribune. Instead, Highwood said, the CFD remains on standby at its station until Craig formally asks for assistance.

Today Craig did ask for assistance, at 4:10 a.m., 12 minutes after the initial tone-out.

A Chesterton firefighter, who asked not to be named, said today that there is no way of knowing whether this morning’s fatality could have been prevented had the CFD not been instructed previously to wait on standby. But, he said, fires can double in size every 30 seconds. “Would that have made a difference in the fatality or not? I don’t know. But it can make a difference in the size of a fire.”

“We can respond anywhere in Porter,” the Chesterton firefighter said. “We can beat them there. It’s not a race. We’re talking about lives. We’re talking about property. We’re all in this together.”

Highwood did say that the PFD automatically responds to every structure fire in Chesterton and does not wait on standby for a request for assistance.

Porter Town Council President Bill Sexton was unaware of the fatal fire when contacted this morning. Nor, Sexton said, had he been advised of the specifics of the automatic aid agreement. “Under the circumstances I’m not comfortable with that,” he said. “I would like to find out more about what happened this morning. . . . Without that it’s hard for me to comment. I guarantee I’ll be making some phone calls this morning. We need to get to the bottom of what happened.”

“At any time that the life of a person is threatened in or near the Town of Chesterton’s borders, and the Town of Chesterton can render assistance to protect person and belongings, I would be more than happy to offer assistance in any shape, way, or form,” Chesterton Town Council President Dave Cincoski said. “And I would be happy to direct the various department heads to assist.”

Posted 10/31/2007