Officials Probe Warehouse Fire Four Seattle Firefighters Killed; Arson Threats Reported

Investigators converged on a gutted food-processing warehouse Friday in hopes of pinpointing the cause of a ferocious fire that killed four firefighters who were trapped when part of the building collapsed.

Officials were tight-lipped about a news report that the main business in the building had received threats. The business owners said Friday they had received no threats.

“This is the most devastating tragedy that has ever hit the Seattle Fire Department,” Fire Chief Claude Harris told a news conference.

Police Chief Norm Stamper would provide no details on the investigation, but said, “we are treating the scene as a crime scene.”

The dead firefighters were identified as Lt. Walter D. Kilgore, 45, a 24-year department veteran; James T. Brown, 25, a three-year veteran; Gregory M. Shoemaker, 43, a 22-year veteran; and Randall R. Terlicker, 35, a four-year veteran.

The Spokane Fire Department will send 30 to 50 firefighters to Seattle to honor their fallen comrades.

“It’s a big family,” Spokane firefighter Bill Gonzalez said of the profession. “We’re just kind of a special bunch.”

Spokane County Fire District 8 is raising money for the Seattle victims’ families and plans to send two or three of its 11 paid staff members and a couple of volunteers to pay their respects.

“We’ll have people jumping at the chance to go,” District 8 firefighter Russell Lambeth said. “It makes you realize that any time you go out of the station, it could happen to you.”

The four died Thursday night when the main floor of the blazing warehouse collapsed into a lower level.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported the building had been under surveillance after Mary Pang’s Food Products Inc., owned by Mary and Harry Pang, received arson threats.

The Pangs told The Seattle Times they had never received threats against themselves or their property. They said they know of no threats made to anyone else. Had they known of any, they told The Times, they would have gone to police.

Federal agents and police homi cide Capt. Larry Farrar confirmed arson threats had been made but did not give details, the PostIntelligencer reported.

Seattle police spokesman Sean O’Donnell told reporters Friday, “We had received information that piqued our interest in that building - prior to last evening’s events.” He did not elaborate.

Harris, Stamper and Jim Provencher, spokesman for the Seattle office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, also refused to discuss if any threats had been made.

Provencher said his agency was assembling a team of investigators from several states to help probe the blaze, but could give no estimate how long that might take.

Crews began removing the firefighters’ bodies Friday evening, fire spokeswoman Georgia Taylor said. Two were taken to the King County medical examiner’s office for autopsies, and efforts to remove the other two were to resume today.

The fire was reported about 7 p.m. Thursday in the warehouse that housed the Pangs’ frozen-food processing operation, a bakery, a rehearsal area for a rock band and a storage area for the Pang plant. It was reported by a man who had arrived for a practice session of the band.