CHICAGO (AP) -- City officials are being criticized for canceling the testimony of two firefighters before an independent panel investigating firefighters' response to a deadly blaze at a government building that killed six people.
The city also has temporarily postponed testimony from four other firefighters and is refusing to turn over a full report on the blaze, raising questions about the city's willingness to cooperate.
If the city stops cooperating, the panel may seek subpoena power.
``I find it baffling that, in the midst of all the other issues the city is currently confronting, that they would want to take on an independent commission that's been created to get at the truth of what happened that day,'' said George Ellison, an attorney representing the commission. ``The central question is, what is the city afraid of?''
Six people died in a smoky stairwell during the Oct. 17 fire at the Cook County Administration Building in downtown Chicago. Their deaths have been labeled homicides because of the report's findings, which have not been released to the public.
The panel, headed by a former appellate court judge, was formed to investigate the fire department's response to the blaze and determine why it took 90 minutes for the victims to be found.
Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city's Department of Law, said the panel's interviews have become a drain on city resources.
Hoyle said that, under union rules, if one person is missing from a Fire Department company, the whole company of four or five people cannot work because of the burden on the understaffed unit.
``We had two interviews that were canceled,'' Hoyle said. ``We had already done 18 interviews and each time we do that, we have to pull a whole fire company out of service.''
Hoyle also said that some information about the fire should not be made public yet because it's the subject of a criminal investigation.
According to a summary of the fire department's report, the fire was man-made but it is unclear whether the blaze was intentionally set.
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