Page 17 - Arson Fire News Today

Samples, and the results showed 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 accelerant here, this must be an arson, and that changes peoples opinions. >> to prosecutors the presence of gasoline meant murder. based...

She found rosalie on the back porch severely burned and barely conscious. but there was no sign of her 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 horribl...

>> we were all there to support 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. very now and n i get a little bit hungry ♪ ♪ and theres nothing good around ♪ ♪ tur...

Close a deal. hire an intern. and still have time to spare. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business. built for business. i was horrified. it felt like i was in my own horror film. >> defense attorney thomas cometa strongly believed his client, paul camiolo, was innocent, that he never set fire to his familys home in order to kill his parents. >> facing the death penalty for a crime that he was convinced and we were convi...

Second floor. and three minutes after 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 witho...

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?

Ed was a retired government worker and rosalie worked in the computer industry. 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 emer...

Fire on the sofa which his mother was trying to put out. he ran to the kitchen, got a pitcher of water and threw it on the sofa but it made the fire worse. he told his parents to go out the back door, he called 911. then he went out the front door to his car. >> he was in his underwear i believe at the time. had his car parked out in front. and had a gym bag in his car and he felt he could get shorts or clothes to put on. >> what doesnt make sense to me was pauls story. to this day i have proble...

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 general consensus that the fire was accidental in natu...

>> and the alleged pour pattern on the living room floor? many now believe it was simply the result of normal wear and tear. >> you would expect that people walking back and forth on the carpet would thin the carpet and therefore any heat thats imparted on that would pass through that carpet area more quickly than in other areas. >> when all of this overwhelming body of evidence came to light, all charges against paul camiolo were dropped. >> in this business you have people that for a certain a...