For those people who call drug use victimless, read on:

Crack addict admits he lit deadly blaze

He says he 'didn't do it on purpose'; charges pending in fireman's death
By BILL MURPHY
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

A crack addict has confessed to starting the house blaze that killed a Houston firefighter, claiming a small fire he lit so he could see his crack pipe got out of hand, authorities said Monday.

Whether the suspect can be charged with arson, murder or some other offense will depend on whether an investigation bears out his claim that he did not mean to torch the house, investigators said.

Jack Cordua, 44, might not have admitted to setting the fire at all if he had not become rattled when an accelerant-sniffing dog reacted to his pant leg during questioning Saturday night, police said.

"There was an obvious change from being relaxed and confident and 'why are you talking to me' to almost like 'I'll tell you what happened,' " said Houston Police Detective Brian Harris. "His eyes got real wide. He tried to create distance (between him and the dog). ... He blurted out, 'I didn't do it on purpose.' "

Cordua, who is homeless, is being held on a cocaine possession charge while investigators decide whether to file additional charges, said HFD Chief Arson Investigator Roy Paul.

Fire Capt. Grady Burke, 39, died when an abandoned house in southeast Houston became engulfed in flames early Saturday morning.

Cordua told police he did not use an accelerant to start the fire.

The question for investigators is whether the dog, a 5-year-old black Labrador named Yoshi, reacted to an accelerant used by Cordua or to some other substance that might have soaked into his pant leg, Paul said.

"We are extremely lucky to have Yoshi. She fingered the guy," he said. "This could have gone unsolved."

Investigators are conducting lab tests to determine what substance was on Cordua's pants and whether that substance, or any accelerant, was used to start the fire.

If Cordua didn't light the fire with the intention of torching the home, authorities can look into whether they can bring a manslaughter charge, Paul said.

His intent in setting the fire "has a huge impact on the nature of the charge. That's why we haven't charged him yet," Paul said.

Cordua, a native of Nicaragua, often hung out in the Sunnyside neighborhood where the fire occurred, Paul said.

Other crack users sometimes beat up the short, thin man to steal his crack, Paul said.

He had a severely separated shoulder when he was picked up Saturday about 5:30 p.m., the result of one or more beatings, Paul said. He also had a bad leg and walked with a cane.

He told police that he once worked as a produce distribution manager in South Carolina, but he has been unable to hold a steady job since becoming addicted to crack, Paul said.

He occasionally did odd jobs at convenience stores or construction sites in Sunnyside.

He often slept in an abandoned home next to the one in the 8500 block of Brandon where Burke died, Paul said. But the windows of that home, he said, were boarded up last week, and Cordua has since stayed elsewhere.

He went into the home where he started the fire early Saturday to smoke crack, Harris said.

Lost control of fire
With items collected from around the house, he lit a fire in an 18-inch glass bowl so he could see what he was doing, Paul said.

The fire spread when the bowl broke. Cordua told police he tried to put it out with his hands and later tried to stamp it out, but investigators found no burn marks on his hands and no soot residue on his boots, Paul said.

After Burke's death early Saturday, investigators learned from street sources that Cordua often went into the house. A detective spotted him on a Metro bus and detained him.

Burke died as he and and several other firefighters were mounting "a quick attack," a technique to get into a fire quickly and put it out before it spreads, Paul said.

Burke and the others had approached the fire in an addition at the home's rear when the ceiling fell, trapping Burke, Paul said.

The entire house was engulfed quickly, possibly because of a flashover � a rare event that occurs when a fire suddenly receives a burst of oxygen.


It also is possible that the fire expanded when the ceiling fell, blowing fire, smoke and air through much of the home, Paul said.


Burke is the fifth HFD firefighter to die in the line of duty in five years.


Fire Chief Phillip Boriskie went to Burke's Texas City home on Monday and spoke to his widow, Cindy, and his three young children.


Boriskie said the department wants the focus this week to be on Burke's valor. In the weeks ahead, HFD officials may examine whether the department, known nationwide as one that engages in aggressive interior firefighting, needs to rethink some of its tactics, Boriskie said.

Another example of the side effects of drug abuse occurred recently in Nuevo Laredo, where the mayor says Alejandro Dominguez was quite possibly killed by some of his own police department officers "as an example of someone they didn't want as a chief". Dominguez was shot only hours after taking over as Chief of Police. The mayor noted many of the city's police officers have been drawn into drug trafficking and that the city accordingly had little rule of law. Even U.S. Ambassador Tony Graza has decried "the rapidly degenerating situation along the border and the near-lawlessness is some parts." It is noteworthy that two of Dominguez's grown children requested their names not even be included in his obituary out of fear of the drug gangs.