Judge dismisses lawsuit against Baltimore City over 2022 fire that killed 3 firefighters

BALTIMORE -- A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the City of Baltimore over a 2022 fire that killed 3 Baltimore firefighters.

Lt. Paul Butrim, firefighter/paramedic Kelsey Sadler, and EMT/firefighter Kenny Lacayo were killed when they became trapped in a vacant rowhome on South Stricker Street, on January 24, 2022. 

In October 2022, The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined that the fire was ignited due to criminal activity.

In April 2022, the deaths of the firefighters were ruled homicides. 

On May 1, the families of Butrim, Sadler, and Lacayo filed the lawsuit, claiming that the city "maintained a policy of knowingly and deliberately sending unsuspecting firefighters into structurally unsafe condemned buildings."

In 2010, the city implemented a program called Code X-Ray to ensure that firefighters would not be ordered into unsafe properties, marking structurally unsafe buildings with reflective placards or a painted red X that would warn firefighters not to enter, according to the lawsuit. That practice was to be accompanied by a database of all structures deemed unsafe. However, the lawsuit claims that the program was discontinued or limited to a few select neighborhoods - accusing the city of withholding this information from its Third Battalion firefighters. 

The lawsuit alleged that the city maintained the practice of knowingly sending firefighters into unsafe structures for more than ten years. 

According to the lawsuit, the city condemned the rowhome on South Stricker Street in 2015 after determining that it was severely compromised and at risk of collapse, before it caught on fire in 2016.

"The Complaint does not — and cannot — plausibly allege that the City intended the deaths of its valued employees," Chief Solicitor Thomas Webb wrote in a motion to dismiss.

A judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that it failed to show that the city intended to harm the firefighters.