Posted: Friday, May 25, 2000 - Noon
Worcester Widows Sue Building Owner
BOSTON (AP) -- The widows of three of the six firefighters killed in a warehouse fire last December have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the owners of the building.
The lawsuit blames the owners of the former Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. building for failing to keep out the squatters who are accused of setting the blaze.
Filed last month by the widows of Timothy Jackson, Jeremiah Lucey and Thomas Spencer, the lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from the owners, the Boston Herald reported Friday.
The building is owned by CDB Realty Trust, which is controlled by Ding On Kwan and his wife, Shu May Kwan. They have an unlisted home phone number and could not be reached for comment early Friday.
Two of the firefighters were killed in the Dec. 3 blaze after they became lost in the burning structure while looking for homeless people they were told may have been inside. The other four died trying to save them.
The lawsuit alleges that the deaths were ``due to and proximately caused by the negligence and carelessness of the defendants'' who failed to maintain, inspect and repair the warehouse.
A few days after the fire, police arrested a homeless couple who had been living there. Thomas Levesque, 37, and Julie Barnes, 19, are accused of knocking over a candle during an argument and fleeing when the fire began to spread. They have pleaded innocent to manslaughter charges.
Related
| 
