By MES Dispatch Staff
The Briefing
- A federal judge ruled this week that the families of three Baltimore firefighters killed in a 2022 house fire can file an amended lawsuit against the city.
- The families are pursuing claims of negligence, wrongful death and state-created danger.
- Lt. Paul Butrim, Lt. Kelsey Sadler and firefighter/EMT Kenny Lacayo died when a vacant rowhome on Stricker Street partially collapsed during firefighting operations in January 2022.
- The ruling reverses a February dismissal of the families’ prior complaint and follows the earlier dismissal of a first lawsuit against the city.
- A man has separately been indicted on arson and homicide charges connected to the fire and is scheduled for trial Oct. 2.
BALTIMORE — U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox has allowed the families of three Baltimore firefighters killed in a 2022 structure fire to file an amended complaint against the city, giving them another opportunity to pursue negligence, wrongful death and state-created danger claims.
The families of Lt. Paul Butrim, Lt. Kelsey Sadler and firefighter/EMT Kenny Lacayo filed the amended complaint this week after Maddox granted them leave to do so. The three were killed in January 2022 when a vacant rowhome on Stricker Street in the city’s Mount Clare neighborhood partially collapsed while fire personnel were fighting the blaze from inside. Firefighter/EMT John McMaster, who was seriously injured in the fire, is also named as a plaintiff.
The ruling follows Maddox’s February dismissal of the families’ original complaint, in which he found they had not adequately alleged the city acted to purposely endanger the firefighters. In his order this week, Maddox said newly attached affidavits and their citation in the proposed amended complaint addressed that deficiency. It marks the second time a lawsuit brought by the families over the deaths has been revived after dismissal.
The amended complaint alleges the city knowingly sent firefighters into structurally compromised buildings without their knowledge and had discontinued, then concealed the discontinuation of, a program intended to prevent such assignments. It also alleges the city was engaged in a “profit-sharing scheme” that kept certain unsafe properties in some neighborhoods, including the Stricker Street address, from being demolished or flagged as structurally compromised. The city has argued the families cannot plausibly allege it intended the firefighters’ deaths or fraudulently induced them into dangerous conditions.
An independent panel report released later in 2022 found the city lacked policies governing vacant buildings at the time of the fire and that an on-scene battalion chief had been overloaded with duties, causing him to miss critical radio communications. The report’s release led to the resignation of then-Fire Chief Niles Ford.
James Edwin Barnett of Baltimore was indicted in December on arson and homicide charges in connection with the fire and has a trial scheduled for Oct. 2, according to Maryland court records. Attorney Ken Berman, who represents the firefighters’ families, said the case has grown stronger through continued investigation and that the families intend to pursue it despite multiple dismissals. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.