THREE WEEKS AGO TODAY ON FEBRUARY 14, Firegeezer reported HERE on a deadly fire in Cicero, Illinois, on Valentine’s Day.  The fire broke out in a house that had been illegally converted to separate living units and the fire spread to the next building over that had been altered similarly.  Altogether nearly 30 people were crammed into the tenements and when the fire was extinguished there were seven dead inside the house.  Roughly 20 people escaped, but the exact number isn’t known.

See Larry Shapiro’s 180-image photo gallery of this fire HERE.

This past Wednesday March 3, two men were arrested and charged for arson and murder in the case.  One of them was the owner of the buildings Lawrence Myers, 60, and a maintenance man, Marion Comier, 47.  According to the prosecutors, Myers hired Comier to set the fire in exchange for $3,000 to $15,000.  The prosecution says that Myers was in financial difficulty, behind in mortgage payments and facing foreclosure on two other properties that he owns in other towns.  His motive was to collect $250,000 in insurance that he held on the Cicero house.  The Chicago Tribune reported:

“It was done at the wrong time,” Lawrence Myers said in a secretly taped conversation with the maintenance man, Marion Comier, according to prosecutors. “I didn’t want any of this to happen.”  Myers had instructed Comier to burn down the apartment building during the day “when the children were at school and the women were at work,” according to one of the recordings, prosecutors said.

The two are also heard on the wiretaps talking about how much Comier would be paid, anywhere from $3,000 to $15,000, Cook County Asst. State’s Attorney Mary Lacy said in court.

And they discussed how Comier used a mixture of gasoline and oil to start the fire in an attempt to disguise the smell. “I dumped it on there, threw in a match and that was it,” Lacy said, quoting Comier’s statement.  The fire started in the rear of the first floor of the building, which was empty, Lacy said. But it raced up a back stairs, cutting off the only escape for people on the second floor.

During one taped conversation, Myers repeatedly discussed plans to take the insurance money and flee to West Virginia, where he would live without a mailbox or telephone so he would be difficult to find.

In the days after the fire, three witnesses came forward and told Cicero police they had heard Myers and Comier discussing burning down the building, prosecutors said. One of the witnesses said Comier admited setting the fire.

Witnesses also described hearing Myers repeatedly calling Comier before the fire and asking him to do it, prosecutors said.  A witness agreed to wear a wire and, on five separate days, recorded the two making statements implicating themselves, prosecutors said.

Both men were arrested Wednesday evening at 6 pm and are charged with seven counts of 1st-degree murder and two counts of aggravated arson.  Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune HERE.

The men were arraigned Friday afternoon and WFLD-TV Ch. 32 filed this video report:

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