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By FRED MILLER, Review Staff Writer
NEWELL - State fire marshal's office investigators have
officially ruled the Christie's Cabaret fire an arson after
finding a burn pattern in the floor of the club's office.
"There was a burn pattern on the floor where an accelerant
was poured," said Assistant State Fire Marshal John Oliver.
The office was in the southeast portion of the building.
Eyewitnesses had said the south end of the building appeared
more heavily involved early in the fire.
"Brady," a dog trained to sniff out arson evidence, was
brought from Beckley, W.Va., Tuesday to assist in the
investigation. Oliver said he had the dog go through the
rubble and "he 'hit' in several areas."
Fire marshal investigators and Newell firefighters removed
debris from the floor and discovered the burn pattern.
Samples have been sent to the W.Va. State Police Crime Lab
in Charleston for analysis to determine what kind of
accelerant was used, Oliver said. He and the other
investigators departed Wednesday evening after spending the
day digging through the site and interviewing local
individuals.
The state fire marshal's office will continue the
investigation in coordination with other law enforcement
agencies, he indicated.
Newell Fire Chief Scott Wilson, whose firefighters helped
investigators with "the grunt work" of the investigation, said
digging through the ruined building was "a tedious task."
The two-story building, a pole-type building sided with
T-111 wooden siding and a conventional truss roof, was
leveled.
Oliver said the business is owned by Entertainment USA out
of Memphis, Tenn.
In a related development, Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming
Resort took exception to a statement by Chief Wilson in press
reports that the first hydrant tapped in the fire battle,
located at nearby Mountaineer, had "insufficient" flow for the
tankers hauling water to the Christie's fire, forcing
firefighters to obtain water from the BOC Gases plant.
"The firefighters tapped into a hydrant coded red, which
has a flow capacity of less than 500 gallons per minute, while
the fire hydrant coded green, only 20 feet away, has a
capacity of 1,000 to 1,499 gallons per minute," said Patrick
Arneault, vice president of development at Mountaineer.
Patrick said Mountaineer's hydrants are color coded
according to National Fire Protection Association standards.
Wilson said although Arneault is correct about there being
color code standards for fire hydrants, few are so coded in
this area, and Mountaineer has never communicated any
information about its water system to the Newell Fire
Department.
"They have two systems down there, apparently, and we went
to a hydrant on the old system," said the chief. "Unless we're
told, we don't know."
Water departments often leave a hydrant whatever color it
is when it is purchased, Wilson said, or they color-code it to
indicate which water system it belongs to. Hydrants on the
Newell Company water line going up Sixth Street hill are all
yellow, he said, while Tomlinson Public Service District has
red hydrants.
Until the national color codes are more uniformly followed,
or the department is specifically informed of flow rates,
firefighters won't assume hydrant colors correspond to flow
rates, said Wilson. There was no reason to try the other
Mountaineer hydrant since firefighters were uninformed there
were two water systems.
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