AP News, February 28th, 2007
Family members of 10 people killed in an apartment fire more than two years ago have reached a $6.5 million settlement with several companies involved with the property.
Investigators said the fire was intentionally set, and lawsuits later challenged the adequacy of security in the apartment complex, which housed numerous immigrants.
Three fires had been set in an empty apartment and a hallway in the same building about six weeks before the September 2004 blaze, investigators said. Seven Mexican immigrants were among those killed when the stairwell was again set on fire in what is considered one of the city's worst arson cases.
Investigators said the blaze intentionally blocked escape routes for people who had to jump from third-story windows. No arrests have been made.
The settlement, which was approved Thursday by the Franklin County Probate Court, will be paid to the victims' family members, who live in Leon in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato.
Companies involved in the settlement were owner Paramount Financial Group, Inc. of Granville; property management company RLJ Management Co. of Gahanna; Ameriguard Investigators & Security of Reynoldsburg in Columbus; and New York-based Matrix Realty Group, which was planning to buy part of the complex.
The security company said it was told to stop providing security to the complex. Ameriguard and the apartment owners and managers also said Matrix agreed to provide security before the purchase. Matrix disputed the allegations and said it would never agree to guard property it did not own, according to court documents.
Attorneys for each company declined to comment about the settlement.
