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The Family Farms Market Fire
-An Inner City Fable for our Times-
The Family Farms Food Market was an old Lucky Supermarket in the heart of Los Angeles South Central/Watts. After the first set of riots in the late 60's, the neighborhood deteriorated and most of the economically viable commercial tenants were forced to leave.
The Faraj family members were refugees from the Middle East - war-torn Palestine and Lebanon - areas where life was infinitely more difficult than South Central L. A. They met while working their way up from places in South America where they had first landed when they left their homelands. Ultimately in the mid 70s, they managed to take over the market and ran what was one of the few food sources for that area for many years. They even survived the riots in '92 which really doomed the neighborhood again.
Apparently the city and federal governments were looking for some way of rebuilding the investor shy area at the same time the Farajs were looking to expand and remodel their now thriving business. Since governments don't just give the money away, the family had to work in some private bank loans. It looked like The Family Farms Market was going to be an important focal part of rebuilding L. A.
Then, late one evening in January 1994, the old supermarket was destroyed by a fire.
The insurance company refused to pay when the arson investigators said gasoline was spread throughout the old store. The city council nixed the loans and a local judge had most of the family arrested. The trial was canceled when the only witness (a janitor with a grudge) left for El Salvador.
In early '96, the insurance company still had not paid. I was brought in with Larry Brown's fire investigation team ( ISI Investigations and Law office of David Lipski) to re-examine the evidence. In short, we found that the original investigation was inconsistent and failed to eliminate numerous fuel and ignition sources. There
was no actual accelerant evidence taken and the canines had found nothing. More telling were the suppression team's (fire fighters) reports that indicated that smoke and flames were observed in a path that matched the building damage pattern-and pointed to a different origin area.
My task was to reconstruct the building using photographs, plans and deposition statements and interviews. I used a 3D solid modeling program to draft up an accurate floor plan. Then I built the structure from the ground up placing all structural components, materials, and electrical/mechanical inventory in the database as identifiable objects or layers that could be turned on or off or examined separately as needed. Each photograph could then be examined for compared details. Early on in the process, for example, the presence of floor drains appeared which would act as a sump for the accelerant. Then there was a lack of identifiable pour patterns. Most important was the lack of a complete fire wall between the processing/storage areas and the retail areas in the large interstitial attic space. The wall simply stopped above the ceiling tile.
As the reconstruction continued, I was faxing various progress packages of views and details to the experts and counsel which generated questions and filled gaps that were placed into the database. This tends to keep an investigation focused and on schedule.
Finally we were able to determine a damage pattern. It appeared to originate from a cell wall between freezers and spread upward to flash over and spread over the firewall to a fuel enriched retail stock area simultaneously with the roof beam collapse. I showed this scenario as the core feature of the animation and a main premise of the case. A fire growth from a single source rules out non-communicating fires as a mainstay of arson.
As we neared trial, I faxed a package of finalized views and section details to the experts and counsel for their utilization in presenting the case. This included about 15 or 20 axonometrics, exploded axonometrics aerials, plans and cross sections. I rendered out color views of the model from a walk-thru and fly-around. Ordinarily I would pull together a visual presentation package consisting of large format color court boards, timelines, document blowups, jury book and video animation.
Fig 2. Fire Spread Cells (Courtesy ISI Investigations and Law office of David Lipski)
Because time was short, I began some preliminary animation of the model which includes the fly-around orientation, a quick walk-thru and the fire spread cells. Normally, for the most effective courtroom presentation, I would storyboard the entire affair and print to laser or CD disk. However, right about then, I was told to stop work because the case was settled.
I have been asked not to comment about settlement. This is not unusual because most cases actually settle around discovery. Nonetheless, my clients were quite happy with the work product. I believe the forensic graphics process played an important part by focusing the issues and organizing the case.
Michael Bloomenfeld
AEC ©1996
Please call 1-650-854-5535 or email: macbloom@aol.com for more information.
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