3546 $6.5 million wrongful death suit for illegals

In September 2004 there was a horrible tragic fire on Columbus' west side in which seven adults, all illegal immigrants and three children, all U.S. citizens died. At least, that's my recollection from the way the story was covered then. At the time we were told that the fire got out of control because the residents were fearful of being discovered, couldn't speak enough English to let 911 know what was wrong, were living several families in one small apartment, and were probably victims of an arsonist, perhaps a rival or disgruntled fellow-immigrant (don't remember if the theory was sex, drugs or bad debts).

Today's report says nothing about that, only that "Columbus lawyers working with colleagues in Texas and Mexico agreed to the terms of a $6.5 million lawsuit" against the property owners and a security firm.

"Most of the 10 people who died had traveled to the United States to work as landscapers. All were killed by burns and carbon-monoxide poisoning as the fire, set in a mattress in a hallway on the lower level, quickly spread and blocked their escape. Apartment owners were aware of an arson fire in the same building 90 days before the fatal fire but failed to increase security, lawyers said."

So who is at fault here? Not the people who smuggled them into the country; not the people who hired them; not the people who supplied false documents; not the other illegals who invited them to live 10 people to an apartment; not the liberals, Hispanic advocacy groups or church groups who do everything to keep them here; not the immigrant men who didn't allow their women outside to learn English; not the Congress who didn't supply the funding to protect the borders; and certainly not the Mexican government who refuses to clean up their mess at home, preferring to drain all it can from our economy. In 2004, our own emergency call service was blamed because they didn't speak enough Spanish and they all had to take crash courses.

No, through the shenanigans of lawyers who get their 1/3 of the settlement and the Mexican government (don't know how much they get, except perhaps they get to tax that portion that goes to Mexican citizens), the security company and the landlord are at fault for not providing enough security.

Several years ago my son lived in a lovely almost new apartment complex on the east side--off street parking, some garages, a pool, party house, gym, great access to major highways and shopping, etc. Young Hispanic men (if there were women we didn't see them) were jammed into some of these apartments, having fights, looking not at all anxious to be noticed outside the building, with a variety of junky cars littering the parking lots. As soon as his one year lease was up, he moved. It was a scary place.

How long will there be landlords willing to invest in Columbus and keep up property if they have to increase security to handle illegals, or be sued for not doing so? How long will we know the problems in these immigrant communities if our newspapers push the details under the rug? How many more children and parents will need to die at the hands of our homegrown enablers?