Page 14 - Arson Fire News Today

>> forensic tests also revealed how the fire started. a cigarette dropped on to a polyurethane sofa will simply smolder. but when a match is dropped on the same material, its almost like an explosion. and tests revealed that another aspect of pauls story was correct, that when he poured water on the fire, it got worse. >> the average person wouldnt know that polyurethane melts and then when you throw water on it, it actually flares up like a grease fire. >> when prosecutors heard about this, to ...

Roby, an expert on the science of fires. >> what makes it difficult is, fires burn up a lot of the evidence. >> roby studies fires while theyre burning. to do this, he sets fires like this one in model rooms. fires progress differently depending on how theyre set, the size of the room, airflow and hundreds of other considerations. all of this data is then entered into a computer. >> its a fully 3d fire modeling software that actually allows you to model the development and growth of a fire in a ...

Him, and we all went to the hearings, and several of us visited him on a regular basis. we all believed that he was innocent. >> as the trial approached, paul camiolo and his defense team looked for some way to prove that the fire was an accident. >> i couldnt imagine how the gasoline got in there. >> there had to be another explanation as to why gasoline was in that floor. they get re-heated. re-nuked. and re-baked. and when leftovers are done... theres always stuff left over. new dawn platinum...

81-year-old husband, ed. firefighters later found him inside. he had been unable to escape. >> the victim that was located was in a rear bathroom, and he was in cardiac arrest at that time. >> ed camiolo was pronounced dead at the hospital. rosalie died, too, a result of smoke inhalation. >> how horrible it must have been for my uncle, what he went through to be burned, and my aunt, how horrible it must have been for her. >> the firemen at the scene didnt see anything suspicious. >> there was a ...

Their only child, paul, a 31-year-old computer programmer, lived upstairs. he took care of his parents, since they had difficulty getting around. >> its not that they were bedridden or complete invalids, but they certainly werent athletic and able to respond, in my opinion, to an emergency situation. >> just before dawn in september of 1996, paul made an emergency call to the fire department. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> we have a fire in our living room. its getting really bad. >> get out...

There was evidence of gasoline on the wood floor. >> and the single biggest piece of evidence for them to conclude this was an arson fire was the finding of gasoline in the hardwood floor, because how else would you explain gasoline in a living room? >> when the test results come back, it changes from i dont know to, wow, we have an accelerant here, this must be an arson, and that changes peoples opinions. >> to prosecutors, the presence of gasoline meant murder. based on this evidence, prosecut...

At two minutes, it would be moving across the ceiling. at four minutes, temperatures and gas levels in the room would be fatal. at 5 1/2 minutes, the fire reaches flashover and the window blows out. this was consistent with paul camiolos version of events. >> matches up with everything that paul camiolo was saying and with other objective evidence that he has nothing to do with. >> but important questions remained. if the fire was an accident, why was gasoline found on the living room floor? i h...

Ignition, the living room would reach flashover, blowing out the window. >> the entire room becomes engulfed in flames because theres so much burning and so much hot gas that its completely uninhabitable. >> but the police witnessed the window breaking five or six minutes after paul called the fire department. to roby, this meant that gasoline couldnt have been used to start the fire. >> he would have had a tough time actually getting to the front door without being engulfed in flames. thats one...

The living room, but pauls defense team was suspicious of this finding. >> they took samples of the carpeting, the carpet padding, and some newspaper, and there was no gasoline in any of those samples. it was only in the hardwood floor. and it was just inconceivable. how can you pour gasoline in a family room and not get the gas on those other items if that was going to be the cause of the fire? >> so the defense team hired john lentini, a nationally recognized fire expert, to find out what happ...

If a significant volume of gasoline was poured. >> and avato wasnt the least bit suspicious of pauls behavior on the night of the fire. >> its not unusual for people in a fire to exit a building through the way that theyre most comfortable exiting. if they typically come and go through the front door, no matter where they are in the house, theyll exit through the front door. >> avato told local investigators that he believed the fire was accidental, and he was roundly dismissed. >> they portraye...