Neighbors shocked after fellow tenant is charged in apartment fire
(ABC 6 News) – A tenant at the Falcon Landing Apartments in Rochester was charged with two counts of arson on Monday in connection to a fire in the building last week.
46-year-old Richard Dalton was charged with Arson 1st Degree-Dwelling and Arson 3rd Degree Value $300 or More-Unintentional.
The investigation into the fire began with the Rochester Fire Marshal’s Office.
Assistant Fire Marshall Jason Fife couldn’t comment specifically on this case because the Rochester Police investigation is still ongoing, but he did shed light on how these types of incidents are investigated.
“We get, start getting statements, getting the background information from the command staff, from the first arriving firefighters. We may do some interviews on site,” said Fife.
Court documents say Dalton told Fife on the morning of the fire that it started because he fell asleep on the couch while smoking a cigarette and later woke up with flames around his head.
However, the criminal complaint says Fife “found Dalton’s comments odd and did not notice any burns or singe marks on Dalton’s body or clothing. Based on his training and experience, Fire Marshall Fife knows that cigarettes igniting couches are not common due to the material of couches combined with the safeguards on cigarettes.”
The complaint also says on Wednesday, January 8, Investigator Kendrick performed a follow up investigation of the fire, where he viewed surveillance video from the apartment building.
That footage showed Dalton entering the apartment around 4:45 a.m., then 11 seconds later Kendrick saw a flicker of light reflecting off the floor. This is just four minutes before Rochester Police responded to reports of the fire.
Court documents say “at no point in the surveillance did Kendrick observe a cigarette in Dalton’s hand.”
The documents go on to say Kendrick spoke with Dalton about the cause of the fire on Friday, January 10. Kendrick noted “Dalton’s version of events did not match the timeline or the events depicted in surveillance.”
Dalton was booked into the Olmsted County Adult Detention Center later that day.
Dalton’s next-door neighbor, Edward Lawson, who is also the building’s maintenance man, says he never suspected the fire was set intentionally, until he saw the surveillance footage.
“What he had said to me that, what he said to everybody else, you know, that he fell asleep with a cigarette, and I guess that isn’t what happened. It doesn’t look like it,” said Lawson.
Lawson was shocked at the charges and says starting a fire like this was totally out of character for Dalton, who he knew to be a nice guy that was always happy to help him and others in the building.
For now, Lawson is making repairs in the building from the fire. He says Dalton’s unit is “pretty much a total loss on the inside,” and he’s waiting on approval from insurance to begin work on it.
“I just don’t understand why… why it happened, you know?” said Lawson.
Though Dalton has been charged, the police investigation is still considered to be open until the case moves through the courts.
Dalton’s next hearing is on February 5.