Posted on 08/21/2004 6:33:15 PM PDT by PinnedAndRecessed
A house blaze that killed two firefighters started in a tangle of wires and lamps that were installed to grow marijuana in a basement closet, authorities said.
The man who police say was responsible for the drug operation was charged with third-degree murder.
Fire Capt. John Taylor, 53, and firefighter Rey Rubio, 42, died Friday when they were trapped by quick-moving flames while trying to find the source of the fire.
Fire officials said the fire started in the wiring set up to run the lamps and fans used to nurture the plants, and spread more quickly because the hot lights had dried out the wood in the closet.
In addition to murder, Daniel Brough, 35, faces charges of marijuana possession, involuntary manslaughter and causing a catastrophe.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Did any of those who started the wildfires ever face murder charges?
I'm waiting for the day when we lose control of the whole pot issue...
Some scientist is going to splice the gene for the active ingredient into something like bread mold.
Before you know it, we'll have to watch people buying too much bread.
*shake head*
I think it is time we spliced a gene for a laxative into a retrovirus that affects only pot plants. Then when people smoke it, they get a major case of the runs.
I think that would be funny. They can call it dirty potty.
Would it be murder if the guy was growing orchids?
Or just had an aquarium? I've got a reef aquarium with a lot of lighting; I have GFCIs and everything installed, drip loops on all the wires, but it's more likely to start a fire than, say, a table lamp.
Silly overzealous prosecutors...I'm sure they'll have no trouble proving that guy either knew or should have known that his lighting might have killed someone.
So I guess we all have to stop doing any electrical work in our homes now...
Medical marijuana has already made arresting people for smoking pot a joke. If it wasn't contraband, nobody would have died here.
Sounds like he'll do thirty years hard time, then ten years on parole; so he may get off parole before he dies.
If this doesn't distress you, you lack much imagination, and all reason.
Damn. If a do a crap job of wiring up my Christmas tree, it torches my house, and some firefighters get caught up in my bogus wiring will I face a murder charge?!?
Comments Not directed at PinnedAndRecessed
That firefighter wasn't your father - was it?
Since nearly every article posted on FR, the past year or so, is excerpted ... and I rarely bite ... perhaps the very least that can be expected ... name the local of the incident reported in the teaser. Is that asking to much ...?
Or breeding chameleons as I was. Lotsa lighting, timers, wires etc. I feel for the firefighters, but this is not right.
The Free and the Brave. Just doesn't have the meaning it used to - even thirty years ago.
It isn't illegal to breed chameleons.
Philly DA Lynne Abraham sickening bitch alert!
If you lost someone in the civil service I am sorry. I just err on the side of liberty.
Then to argue the flip-side, this fire was commenced from a performing an illegal act. There is logic to that, apart from the Christmas tree. Non-union wiring may be an heated argument in court though.
That might happen at the end of December - no? What really explains these deaths - and what do you say to their children?
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