WORCESTER, Mass. -- A homeless couple has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter charges following a blaze in an abandoned warehouse that killed six firefighters.
Thomas S. Levesque, 37, and Julie S. Barnes, 19, remained jailed after their arrests on Tuesday on $1 million bail.Prosecutors say the pair had stayed on the second floor of the abandoned warehouse for several months. They say Friday night's fire began when a candle was knocked over during an argument.
The two allegedly fled after failing to rescue their pets and did not try to report the blaze.
Two firefighters entered the flaming building after hearing reports of squatters inside only to radio for help after becoming lost in thick smoke. Four other firefighters tried to find them, and all six died.
The fire was believed to be the nation's deadliest for firefighters since 1994, when 14 firefighters perished in a Colorado forest.
A break in the case came Tuesday afternoon when a woman who appeared to be Barnes was recorded on a convenience store videotape telling a clerk that her dog, cats and clothes had been inside the burning building. A man who appears to be Levesque stands nearby.
The tape, broadcast by WFXT-TV, shows the clerk asking Barnes if she and Levesque were the homeless people authorities had been looking for in connection with the fire.
"They think we were in there, but we weren't in there," Barnes says. "I wasn't nowhere around when it started."
Fire Chief Dennis Budd said he could feel only sadness, not anger.
"I feel grief right now, and I don't have any room for that," Budd said. "One more piece of the puzzle has been eliminated."
Homeless advocates pointed to overflowing shelters and emphasized the dilemmas of street life.
"They can't panhandle, they can't loiter, we don't have enough shelter beds, so when they go into abandoned buildings it's trespassing," said Nicole Witherbee, policy coordinator for the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. "So where is it they're supposed to be?"
Firefighters continue to sift through the smoldering rubble. The body of one firefighter was found early Sunday, and another was found early Wednesday.