Cops: Crackheads set fire that set themselves on fire
When Upper Darby police discovered James Radano, the top half of his body covered in burns, they knew they'd found one of two people seen fleeing an early morning house fire that left eight people homeless Saturday.
When Upper Darby police discovered James Radano, the top half of his body covered in burns, they knew they'd found one of two people seen fleeing an early morning house fire that left eight people homeless Saturday.
Radano, 49, who witnesses said was on fire when he ran from the burning house at Timberlake Road near Marshall in Upper Darby, was covered in second- and third-degree burns when police found him hiding out at a nearby residence.
There, police said, they also found Deborah Jeffries, 54, who denied that she'd ever been at the burning building. But despite Jeffries' clean clothes, police became suspicious of the woman, who they said smelled of soot and had black ash on her face.
"She had already changed her clothes but she never got around to wiping the soot off her face," Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said.
Police believe that crack-smoking by Radano and Jeffries at a rowhouse apartment led to the 6 a.m. fire that destroyed one house and damaged two others, Chitwood said.
When paramedics took Radano to Crozer-Chester Medical Center from the house where he was found, at Wiltshire Boulevard near Locust Street, he said he'd been smoking marijuana in the basement of his apartment, had fallen asleep and had awakened to find a fire near his dresser, Chitwood said.
But after Jeffries admitted she'd been in the house when the fire started, she told a different story, Chitwood said. She said she and Radano had been smoking crack in the basement when they fell asleep, according to police.
"The pipe used to smoke crack was placed near the bed, and that was the origin of the fire," Chitwood said.
Jeffries awoke to a dark cloud of smoke and tried unsuccessfully to wake Radano, then fled the residence alone, Chitwood said.
Witnesses watched as Jeffries fled to the Wiltshire house, which police said she lists as her official residence. A short time later, Radano - who lists the Timberlake apartment as his home - emerged from the building aflame and ran to Jeffries' house, witnesses told police.
Jeffries was arrested and charged with drug offenses and eight counts of causing or risking a catastrophe and recklessly endangering another person.
The risk and endangerment charges stem from the eight people in other apartments at the house and in the two adjoining houses who could have been injured in the fire, Chitwood said.
Those people, whose homes sustained smoke and water damage, are being assisted by the Red Cross, he said.
Radano, who remains in critical condition at Crozer-Chester's burn unit, will be charged with offenses similar to Jeffries' once he is released, Chitwood said.
"Because they were smoking crack cocaine and doing the marijuana, they could have burnt down a whole neighborhood," Chitwood said.
