Still Burning

A man was seen leaving the vacant part of a largely abandoned city apartment building minutes before smoke began pouring out. The fire was found to have been deliberately set. Nearly 70 firefighters responded. One veteran firefighter, working on the third floor, died of carbon monoxide poisoning; his breathing apparatus lay empty beside him, although tests showed it had worked properly. The man was charged with felony murder, which required that the death be caused in the course of and in furtherance of the arson. He argued that the arson was complete once the fire was set and he had left, so the firefighter's later death was not caused in furtherance of it, and that negligence, not the arson, was the real cause of death.