Lawsuit against Baltimore over 2022 deadly fire thrown out by judge again
A federal judge has thrown out a second lawsuit against Baltimore related to a 2022 fire that left three firefighters dead.
The lawsuit, filed by the firefighters' family members in 2025, claimed that the city got rid of a program that flagged unsafe buildings. The lawsuit alleged that the city kept that information from firefighters and sent them into an unsafe building.
Judge Matthew Maddox called the allegations "tragic and alarming" in a 30-page opinion, but said it was not enough to support the claims.
Maddox also threw out the previous lawsuit when it was filed in 2024, saying it failed to show that the city intended to harm the firefighters.
The families' attorneys can still choose to refile the lawsuit.
Deadly Stricker Street fire
The families of the three fallen firefighters — Lt. Paul Butrim, firefighter/paramedic Kelsey Sadler, and EMT/firefighter Kenny Lacayo — filed the first lawsuit after the deadly two-alarm fire at a vacant home in the 200 block of S. Stricker Street on Jan. 24, 2022.
The three firefighters died after they became trapped in the vacant rowhome. The cause of the fire was later determined to be criminal activity.
In November 2025, James Barnett, 57, was arrested and charged with arson, murder, reckless endangerment and involuntary manslaughter in connection with the fire, according to police.
According to charging documents, Barnett had given two interviews to police where he said he previously lived in the vacant home before he was kicked out.
Court documents revealed Barnett had 13 prior convictions, including vacant home break-ins.
Firefighters' families sue
In their 2025 lawsuit, the families of the firefighters claimed that the city had a practice of sending firefighters into structurally unsafe buildings. That practice led to the Stricker Street fire deaths, the lawsuit alleged.
According to the lawsuit, the city's Code X-Ray program, established in 2010, prevented firefighters from going into unsafe buildings by marking the buildings with a red X and warning fire crews not to enter.
The lawsuit further claimed that the city failed to notify the firefighters that the program had been partially discontinued.
"As we continue to peel back the layers of the onion, what we learn is that nobody wanted to say, 'Hey, we're not going to do this program anymore, even though it wasn't happening, we're not going to tell anyone,'" said attorney Kevin Stern.
According to the lawsuit, the city also failed to tell firefighters that the vacant rowhome on S. Stricker Street had collapsed multiple times before the fire.
"If the city advised that the Code X-Ray program had been discontinued at any point before January 24, 2022, I and my fellow firefighters would not have entered 205 S. Stricker Street on the day of the incident," said John McMaster, the only surviving firefighter.
Nearly a month after the fire, the city launched an initiative to mark unsafe buildings and vacant homes.
