STURGEON BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A man charged with inadvertently starting a fire which killed two people pleaded not guilty Tuesday.
Anthony Gonzalez, 58, was ordered to stand trial after a police investigator testified at a preliminary hearing on eight charges, including two of second-degree reckless homicide, for the Feb. 22 fire above Butch’s Bar.
Gonzalez then entered the not guilty plea. No trial date was set. He returns to court July 14 for a status conference, court records show.
Prosecutors say Gonzalez admitted to inadvertently setting the fire.
“I was filling a butane lighter and it sprayed all over. All of a sudden it all ignited. It was a enough fluid to start a quarter of the bed on fire. I ran and grabbed a fire extinguisher, thought I blasted it out, but something else was burning, and it was too hot for me to stay in the room. I started pounding on all the doors to get people out,” the complaint quotes him as saying.
Gonzalez was among nine tenants who lived above Butch’s Bar on 3rd Avenue.
Investigators say Gonzalez told others to call 911 when the fire started.
After the fire was put out, officials found two dead among the rubble and another tenant was sent to a Milwaukee burn center.
Authorities have not released the names of the two people who died in the Feb. 22 fire. In the criminal complaint, the victims are only identified by their initials, V.J. and G.H.
Comments