Push on to solve NY arson case that killed 7 Canadians

A taste of what I've done at the Toronto Star so far:

A woman banged her slipper against the window of a room in the burning Holiday Inn over and over, trying to shatter the glass.

Thirty two years later, this image still haunts Mike Zodarecky, a retired firefighter who helped battle a deliberately set fire in Greece, N.Y., that killed seven from the Toronto area and sent dozens from Ontario to hospital.

Investigators never caught the culprit. But survivors and residents of the town, a suburb of Rochester, still want the case solved.

Zodarecky, who in 1978 was a rookie firefighter, couldn’t reach the woman with his ladder.

Amid the screaming and the smoke, another firefighter promised to get the woman out. Zodarecky turned away to give medical attention to other victims.

But later, as he beat down hotel room doors with a sledgehammer after the fire was extinguished, Zodarecky found the woman with the slipper. She was dead.

“There at the foot of the bed was this woman. Not rescued,” said Zodarecky, who was only 25 at the time. “It always haunts me.”

Zodarecky and local residents are calling for a renewed investigation into the cold arson case that killed 10 people in total and injured 34 in the early morning hours of Nov. 26, 1978.

The seven dead Canadians were from Brampton, North York and Etobicoke, who spent the night in Greece while shopping in nearby Rochester.

Read the rest here.

Comments

[Katie Russell]

I didn't realize you wrote for The Star now. I read it every morning. I even read that article and didn't realize you were the author. Good for you!

[kimberly martinez]

This is interesting stuff.I could definitely see The Star using your bit of touch. Good lead by the way.Keep up the good work.