(Footage of 48 HOURS logo; Julie Barnes)
Ms. JULIE BARNES: Hi.
BILL LAGATTUTA reporting:
(Voiceover) In Maine, still facing six counts of manslaughter, Julie Barnes is
trying hard to become a brand-new person.
Mr. TIM KING: What'd she say to you yesterday?
Mrs. DEBB KING: How she can change her name to Sandy King and be part of the
family.
(Footage of Barnes)
LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) What has she told you about the night of the fire?
Mrs. KING: She just tells me she didn't do it. She had nothing to do with it.
Mr. KING: That she wasn't even there.
Mrs. KING: That she wasn't even there.
(Footage of Team 4 Special Report)
LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) And then, unexpectedly, there is a dramatic development
in the court case.
Unidentified Anchor: (From news program) The judge drops the charges against
the homeless couple accused of setting that deadly Worcester warehouse fire
last year.
Mr. KING: They dropped the charges against Julie. She doesn't have to go to
court anymore.
Mrs. KING: Oh, my God.
(Footage of Tom Levesque and Barnes in court)
LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) The judge dismisses all the charges against both Julie
and Tom Levesque.
Mrs. KING: (On telephone) We're just extremely grateful that he made this
decision. And it was a well thought-out decision.
(Footage of Barnes; Levesque; Worcester Cold Storage ablaze)
LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) Was it wrong that they did to walk away from such a
fire? Did they even know what they did? In the end, the judge rules the fire
was an accident and decides the case by the letter of the law alone. And in
Massachusetts, there is no legal obligation to report a fire. The district
attorney plans an appeal.
(Footage of Jennifer King and Barnes)
Mrs. KING: (Voiceover) She's free--free bird.
Mr. KING: Yeah.
LAGATTUTA: You accomplished what many people said would be impossible to do.
Mrs. KING: Yeah. I even think you had your doubts.
LAGATTUTA: I think a lot of people had their doubts.
Mrs. KING: I know.
Mr. KING: We never doubted it.
Mrs. KING: Yeah, that's...
Mr. KING: We never doubted it.
Mrs. KING: We just knew it was going to happen.
Mr. KING: We--we knew.
Ms. JENNIFER KING: (From videotape) Looks like that little cat likes you.
(Home video of Barnes)
Mrs. KING: (Voiceover) It had to happen because it was wrong. You know, now I
see how right I am about her, that she's just an innocent soul that got lost in
the system, and that's sad.
RATHER: Julie Barnes, now free and living far from the streets of Worcester,
free to begin a new life, with a new and loving family. The very same week
Julie Barnes began her new life, the families of the six Worcester firefighters
whose lives were lost were in Colorado Springs, Colorado, joining there at the
site of a national memorial to firefighters who died in the line of duty.
(Footage of dedication ceremony)
Mr. JIM LYONS: We're so proud of him, so proud of what he did.
(Footage of ceremony)
RATHER: (Voiceover) It's still so hard for the family of Jay Lyons and all the
families of the fallen six from Worcester.
(Photos of fallen firefighters)
Unidentified Woman: (Voiceover) We are joined together today to honor those who
have made the ultimate sacrifice, America's bravest.
(Footage of family members; ceremony)
RATHER: (Voiceover) For the Lyons and the Brothertons and the Luceys and the
Jacksons and the McGuirks and Spencers, there was a chance to share a sense of
loss and a sense of purpose with 53 other families. And somehow these families
and these firefighters will carry on.
Mrs. DENISE BROTHERTON: He was doing his job. He'd be saying, `What's going on
with all this stuff. We were just doing our job.'
(Footage of fire truck; firefighters)
Mrs. BROTHERTON: (Voiceover) The true heroes are these firefighters that had to
get back on the truck.
Unidentified Firefighter: Every one of the guys sitting here at this table and
everyone on this department are the same way. They're all heroes.
(Footage of Worcester Cold Storage ablaze)
Unidentified Firefighter: As long as there's firefighters, there's going to be
heroes.
RATHER: What happened here has sounded an alarm for firefighters and their
families all across the country. The federal safety study into this fire warns
that there are similar potential death traps, vacant and abandoned buildings,
everywhere in America. Worcester alone has some 200 of them, but Los Angeles
has 2,000, Houston, 8,000. In Philadelphia, there are 27,000. Over the last
decade, more firefighters have been injured or killed in vacant buildings than
in any other type of fire. If you want to know where the bad buildings are in
your town, just ask a firefighter.
DAN RATHER, host:
That's 48 HOURS for tonight.
Dedicated to Worcester's Bravest Their Families & Firefighters Everywhere
