Photos - Fire Department
Fire Dept Camera Info
Also see the Police Department’s camera photos.
Photos on this page are in chronological order, with times listed, which came from the “Date taken” metadata.
Photos of Sunday, May 20, 2018
The fire alarm activated on Saturday night at 11:47pm (using the building’s surveillance system clock). Photos of that night were taken a few hours late.
Hallway Damage (#0088 - #0093)
Extinguishing powder is on the floor of the hallway. In the hallway, Ron used the extinguisher (which is shown below, photos #0088 & #0090) to extinguish the already nearly-dead fire.
All fire damage was limited to where the flammable liquid (likely alcohol) was leaked/dribbled. The hallway’s window was not blown out or damaged. Ceiling tiles were not disturbed. A gasoline fire would have caused an explosion and much more damage!
Stairwell Damage
Notice the white extinguishing powder on the door in photo #0094 (below) but that the extinguisher was not used inside the stairwell. The fire inside the stairwell fully extinguished itself, which only took a few minutes from the time of ignition. No one witnessed the fire through the stairwell’s window. The stairwell window was not damaged or blown out. A gasoline fire would have caused an explosion.
#0094 – #0095
BELOW — Left: original / Right: brightened
#0096 – #0100
The Third Step (#0101 - #0103)
Unexpected shapes for an “arson” at the apparent end of the liquid trail. Note there are two shapes—a square and a circle—indicating that there was more than one container but that there was only one trail of liquid, and that an arsonist would not need two containers to hold a flammable liquid. See page The Third Step for full explanation.
Ron's Jug of Gasoline (#0104 - #0116)
A red herring—the jug of gasoline had nothing to do with the fire! It wasn’t a gasoline fire! No one smelled gasoline in the building, and the fire didn’t burn like gasoline.
Carpet Samples
Sample #1 – near apartment door in hallway. #0117 – #0119
Sample #2 – at stairwell entrance. #0120 – #0121
Sample #3 – the third step from the bottom of the stairs. #0122 – #0124
Sample #4 – control sample. #0125 – #0126
Collection of Ron's Clothing (#0127 - #0136)
Despite all absence of gasoline odor inside the building (and any report of such), or of fire behavior indicative of gasoline, Ron’s clothing of that night was collected by investigators, since his clothing smelled of gasoline.
Photos of Monday, May 21, 2018
On this new day, the camera’s file numbering system was reset to start at #0001.
#0001 – #0003 It’s Monday morning, 10:02am on May 21, when these photos of the evidence locker’s door were taken, just prior to breaking the tape seal. It’s interesting that the evidence locker was sealed on May 21 (in other words, within the last couple of hours). Ron was booked 24+ hours earlier. Collection of the evidence was completed before Ron was booked. If the evidence wasn’t in the evidence locker for the last 24+ hours, where was it?
#0004 Above is the only known “photo” of Ron’s cigarette lighter. (Can you see it? It’s hidden inside that little paper envelope between two of the cans.) Investigators claim that the lighter was in Ron’s pocket on the night of the fire, but they found it in his apartment while he was detained in the cold outside. Earlier in Ron’s apartment, an officer closely watched and recorded Ron emptying his pockets while he changed his pants to have them collected as evidence. Investigators and officers did not find a lighter in his pocket nor in the contents that he removed from his pockets. It was only near the end of the night (near morning), after Ron had been detained outside for quite some time, that investigators ever mentioned the cigarette lighter.
BELOW: #0005 – #0032
That’s all of the fire department’s evidence photos.