State Safety Officials To Get Fire Records But City Won’t Release Firefighter Radio Transmissions In Blaze That Killed Four

City officials say they will give state investigators most of the records they are seeking for a workplacesafety review of a warehouse fire that killed four firefighters.

But taped radio transmissions between firefighters at the Mary Pang Food Products arson will not be provided, the city said.

“I think there are key elements to the investigation within the tapes that we would not want to be made public,” Seattle Police Capt. Larry Farrar said Friday, referring to his department’s criminal probe into who set the blaze.

State Department of Labor and Industries officials had complained the city was slow to meet their requests for information. The agency investigates workplace deaths to determine whether safety violations were involved.

The tiff has been a sidelight to the search for Martin Pang, the warehouse owners’ son who has been named in a federal warrant as a suspect in the Jan. 5 blaze. He remained at large.

“I have no idea if he will surrender any time soon,” Allen Ressler, an attorney who has represented Pang, said Friday night.

Ressler did not immediately return a call left with his answering service Saturday.

City Attorney Mark Sidran said L&I had been too impatient, going so far as to file a subpoena for records within days of the fire. The agency later withdrew the subpoena.

“While I respect the mission of L&I, they may think it is just as important as the criminal (investigation),” Sidran said Friday. “I don’t think it’s as important. It could compromise the successful completion of prosecution.”

In a Feb. 9 letter to L&I, Sidran said some tapes would be withheld because police felt the release would hurt their ability to interrogate a suspect. The tapes contain information such as the timing of certain events and the condition of the building, he said.

On Tuesday, L&I made a new request for records of all three-alarm fires involving the Seattle Fire Department since June, inspections and various safety officer records.

L&I Director Mark Brown said his department hopes to complete its investigation by the end of March.