Molotov cocktail eyed as cause of fatal South Boston fire

April 7, 2008 12:42 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

(Matthew J. Lee/Globe staff)

By Donovan Slack and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Investigators believe that a woman hurled a Molotov cocktail at a South Boston house early Sunday morning and triggered a fast-moving blaze that killed two children, according to a public safety official briefed on the arson probe.

Police have not said whether they have been in contact with the woman, whose name was not released. No arrests have been reported in connection with the fire on West Sixth Street.

Homicide detectives with accelerant-sniffing dogs searched an apartment on West Seventh Street this morning a block away from the site of the fire that killed a teenager and her toddler sister. Police spent much of the morning at the third-floor apartment near Linskey-Barry Court and emerged shortly after noon carrying paper bags that are used to collect evidence.

The entire block of West Sixth Street remained cordoned off today by wooden blue police horses and yellow crime scene tape. Fire and police officials have not confirmed the victims' identities. The dead victims were identified, however, by one city official and neighbors as Acia "C.C." Johnson, 14, and Sophia Johnson, 2. The spellings and ages could not all be confirmed.

Two other residents were taken to Boston Medical Center with nonlife-threatening injuries. They were identified as the children’s mother, Anna Reisopoulos, 34, and Acia's twin brother, Raymond Johnson Jr., 14.

A brother and sister who said they knew the family spoke today about the shock and sorrow. Edgar Esturban, 11, said he played manhunt with C.C. on Saturday night before the fire.

“I can’t believe she died at an early age,” Edgar said.

“Everybody knows it’s like they say,” interrupted Edgar’s sister, Seiry Esturban, 16, “the good die young.”

“It’s so sad to think about it,” Seiry continued. “It’s just sad.”

On Sunday friends and neighbors described the teenager, a student at Patrick F. Gavin Middle School, as an aspiring athlete who was devoted to her younger sister. Neighbors and friends of the victims gathered near the family's charred home and at the middle school yesterday, where officials sent grief counselors to meet with them.

"She loved that baby," Marie Cardinale, a neighbor, said of the older victim. "They were inseparable. That's why they died together. They held each other tight."
The blaze, which was reported at 3:18 a.m., left the three-story townhouse a blackened hulk. Damage was estimated at $500,000.

It took firefighters about 20 minutes to put out the blaze, which had moved so fast that the two victims could not be saved, said Steven MacDonald, a fire department spokesman. The girls shared a room on the third floor, Cardinale said, and their brother slept in another room on the same floor. MacDonald said last night that the girls were found in a third-floor attic closet.
The intensity of the fire was clear as investigators pulled out debris, including waist-high pieces of mangled plastic, and the remnants of trash cans.

"How it started and why it spread so quickly, that's part of the investigation," MacDonald said.

"The whole front of the building was on fire." Seventy-five firefighters were brought in to fight the blaze, MacDonald said.

At least two other homes on the street were damaged in the blaze. An American Red Cross spokeswoman said the relief agency was providing temporary housing for eight adults and two children who were displaced.

One neighbor said police knocked on his door as the fire was spreading.

"When I opened the door, smoke just blew into the house," said the neighbor, who declined to give his name.

Another neighbor, who lives next door to the burnt-out house, said she was woken up about 3 a.m. by screaming.

"We got up, went to the window, and saw the smoke," said the woman, who declined to give her name. "We got ourselves and we got our dog and we went out the back." The woman and her boyfriend collected belongings yesterday from their home, which sustained minor fire damage.

MacDonald said residents in adjacent homes reported hearing smoke detectors going off, but it was not clear whether any worked in the home where the fire started.

Bystanders yelled at anyone inside the house to jump as the flames intensified, he said.

"The flames were so intense; I've never seen anything like it in my entire life," said neighbor Daniel Zyskowski, 50.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino visited the site to meet with investigators and firefighters, calling it "a very tragic scene."

"This fire did not start on its own," said City Councilor At Large Michael Flaherty, who said he had spoken with various officials at the scene.

"This was a vicious act that stole the lives of two innocent children. As a father of four, I am disgusted."

The fire was on a street where residents typically sit on their stoops watching children playing outside. Neighbors said the teen victim was captain of the middle school's girls basketball team, but friends said she was equally devoted to her schoolwork and her family, especially her younger sister over whom she doted.

She liked rollerblading, riding her bike back and forth across the street, and neighborhood cookouts with a couple of close neighbors, Cardinale said.

Mario Reyes, a 15-year-old friend of the older victim, said the girl ran track and played basketball at South Boston's Condon Community Center.

Johan Vizcaino, also 15, said she had a good sense of humor and was formidable on the basketball court.

"I used to play basketball with her. She was really good at it," Vizcaino said. "She used to baby-sit her [younger sister] all the time."

Throughout the afternoon, dozens of area residents, mostly teenagers, gathered outside police tape at the corner of D and West Sixth streets. Some cried and hugged, while others simply watched at the scene. Plastic flowers were left at a light post, and a group of four teenagers held up roses.

"I've been crying for four hours straight," said Brandy Artes, 13, who said she and the victim played one-on-one basketball every day.

Friends of the teenage victim also showed up at Patrick F. Gavin Middle School throughout the morning yesterday, said Jonathon Palumbo, a Boston public schools spokesman.

"The principal happened to be there, so he obviously let all the students in," Palumbo said.
"He called our main office and we were able to get some counselors over to the school."

Andrew Ryan of the Globe staff and Globe correspondents Michael Naughton, Alex I. Oster, Emily Canal, and Sean Greene contributed to this report.