Ellington

Nearly two weeks after a fire destroyed a West Jackson warehouse, the Jackson Fire Department recovered the body of a homeless man in the collapsed structure. Now family members of the man, Jeremy Smith, want to know why it took investigators until Jan. 28 to discover that Smith died in the Jan. 17 fire. They say that Smith, 20, was apparently sleeping in the building at the corner of Capitol and Lemon streets.

"Right now, the family is outraged and shocked," said Tamara Smith, a cousin of Jeremy. "Why did no one think to say, 'If that building caught on fire, is there a possibility someone could be in there?' Why did it take two weeks for us to determine that there was a body in there?"

The warehouse was abandoned and often used for shelter by the area homeless population. Poindexter Park, across Capitol Street from the warehouse, is a regular daytime meeting place for the homeless in the area, and several day shelters and other community service centers are nearby.

Firefighters responded around 10 p.m. to a two-alarm blaze at the warehouse and had the fire under control within an hour. Nevertheless, they apparently did not discover Smith's body until Jan. 28, when Smith's cousin, Michael Stanford, and a group of homeless persons from the park contacted police after seeing some of Smith's clothing in the rubble.

"The thing we had a problem with is that the job of a fireman is to sift through the remains of a fire," said Stephanie Echols, a family friend. "They just didn't do that."

The Fire Department's Arson and Internal Affairs offices are located at 826 Amite St., almost directly across the street from the warehouse, Echols noted.

Arson investigator Greg Travis did not immediately return a call for comment.

The Hinds County coroner's office notified Smith's family Jan. 29 after identifying Jeremy by fingerprints, which matched some taken when he was in juvenile detention. He died from smoke inhalation and thermal burns, according to Hinds County coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart. Grisham-Stewart said that there were no signs of trauma.

Once a student in Jim Hill High School's International Baccalaureate program, Smith had been a soft-spoken and intelligent young man, the youngest and shyest of his four siblings, Tamara Smith said.

In October 2005, when Jeremy was 16, his mother died suddenly of a heart attack—a result of complications from heart failure and undiagnosed diabetes.

"He was a different Jeremy after his mom (died)," Echols said, prone to rambling and, later, bouts of paranoia.

Smith dropped out of school, spent a year in a mental health facility in Hattiesburg and also had stints in several other homes. He occasionally stayed with family members in Jackson but would grow suspicious that people had gone through his belongings and leave. He still maintained regular contact with family, though.

"Jeremy would check in with us about once a week," Tamara Smith said. "He had just left his sister's house on Sunday (the night of the fire)."

Tamara Smith, who directs Good Samaritan Midtown's Montessori pre-kindergarten program, said that she is baffled that the Fire Department did not return to the building earlier. Investigators who worked across the street from the warehouse would have known that homeless people used it: "Human nature should kick in, and you should think that's a possibility."

A memorial service for Jeremy Smith will be held at 2 p.m. today, in the chapel at Stewpot Community Services, 1100 West Capitol Street.

The ACLU of Mississippi is working with Smith's family to get their questions answered and will host a press conference in Poindexter Park on Monday.

Previous Comments

ID

155770

Comment

Something doesn't seem right about this. I would think investigators would scour the entire building during their investigation. Perhaps he was hiding in an area they didn't search?

Author

golden eagle

Date

2010-02-05T09:29:45-06:00