Editor's Note: After the Tribune went to press Thursday the Northwest Indiana Major Crimes Task Force concluded the investigation of the Oct. 31 fire covered in the story below.

The task force report says that fire victim Laurence Hanna intentionally set fire to the home and then was overcome by smoke and carbon monoxide gas.

KEVIN NEVERS

The exact cause of the fire which killed Laurence T. Hanna in his Porter house early Wednesday morning remains unknown, but it has been ruled as incendiary in origin.

Jim Branham, director of the Porter County Fire Investigation Strike Team (FIST), told the Chesterton Tribune today that, “because of the evidence that we recovered in the house, the type of burn,” FIST has determined it to have been an “incendiary fire.”

“But the circumstances of how it occurred we’re not sure of yet” Branham said. “Who started it? That’s the criminal aspect. That’s the job of the police.”

The house, located at 301, S. 23rd St., sustained “severe damage” in the center of the home and damage in the living room on the south end and in the basement, Branham said. The State Fire Marshal’s Office has removed samples from the house for testing.

Following an autopsy performed on Wednesday afternoon, Porter County Coroner Victoria Deppe has ruled the cause of Hanna’s death to be asphyxiation from smoke inhalation. Hanna, 42, was found to have both an elevated level of carbon monoxide in his blood and smoke in his lungs, she said, and he sustained some minor thermal burns on his sides.

The results of a routine toxicology screen will not be available for some time, Deppe said.

At the request of the Porter Police Department, the Northwest Indiana Major Crimes Task Force has been asked to assist the PPD and the Porter Fire Department in the investigation, along with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

PPD investigators were not available this morning for comment.

Re: Automatic Aid

Meanwhile, Porter Fire Chief Lewis Craig disputed a time line of events published in Wednesday’s edition of the Chesterton Tribune. Both the Porter and Chesterton fire department’s were toned out at 3:58 a.m., he said, he personally arrived at the scene at 4:02 a.m., and he requested the CFD’s assistance at 4:04 a.m., not 4:12 a.m., as the Tribune reported. The first PFD engine arrived at the scene at 4:07 a.m., Craig said.

More to the point, Craig questioned the motivation of the unnamed source of the story, a Chesterton firefighter who told the Tribune on condition of anonymity that he believed the PFD’s policy of keeping the CFD on standby at the station on any automatic aid call for a structure fire in Porter is a hazardous one.

On the contrary, Craig said, he has implemented the standby policy for a very good reason. On a previous occasion, when the CFD had responded to an automatic aid call in Porter, both the PFD and the CFD rolled an engine. In fact a tanker was badly needed, Craig said, every available Porter firefighter was already at the scene, and had the CFD been waiting on standby he could have requested and gotten a tanker immediately. “So I told them to stand by at the station to wait for what I need, a tanker, a snorkel, whatever.”

“I’m the chief,” Craig added. “I’m the first one on the scene. I have to make split decisions. (That Chesterton firefighter doesn’t) have to make split decisions. He can sit back and criticize.”

Craig noted that, in any case when the PFD is responding to a structure fire on the other side of the railroad tracks and a train is blocking the crossing, his firefighters are authorized to request immediate assistance from the CFD.

Craig also disputed the unamed source’s contention that a fire doubles in size every 30 seconds. “Every house fire has its own scenario,” he said. At the scene on Wednesday the fire had very nearly extinguished itself—it was “a very old house, a very tight house” and was dying for want of oxygen–when an opened door caused a draft and gave the blaze new life.

Craig did say that, when his firefighters first entered the house, they were initially blocked from the rest of the structure by a large hole in the floor which impeded their progress. Once the PFD had negotiated the hole and knocked down the fire, the CFD was tasked with a search of the residence. Hanna was found in the bathroom, he said.

A copy of the computerized “Detailed History for Fire Event” provided by Craig confirms his time line: he arrived at the scene at 4:02:20; determined it to be a working fire at 4:02:39; requested the CFD’s assistance at 4:04:05; PFD engine 910 arrived at the scene at 4:07:15; Craig requested FIST’s assistance at 4:15:42; and he requested the Porter County Coroner and the State Fire Marshal at 4:32:53.

Posted 11/1/2007