Confesses Starting Fire In Detroit Stable Area: Leroy McCammish Admits to Police His Part in Disaster, Daily Racing Form, 1944-06-20

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Confesses Starting Fire In Detroit Stable Area AreaLeroy Leroy McCammish Admits lo Police His Part in Disaster DisasterDETROIT DETROIT Mich June 19 Leroy Peg leg McCammish occasionally einployde as a groom admitted late Saturday to Detroit groom admitted late Saturday to Detroit police that he had started the fire early Saturday morning that destroyed two barns at the Fair Grounds and caused the death of David Scott a groom and 33 j horses It has hot yet been decided whether to charge McCammish with arson or mur ¬ der derPolice Police records reveal that McCammish had served a term for firing a grain field in California last year He also is alleged to have been implicated in other fires arid to have served a term for burglary in Cal ¬ ifornia iforniaIn In tlje course of questioning of the 30 yearold exgroom it was brought out that he had predicted a fire to stable employes only a half hour before the two barns be ¬ came raging infernos that took Scotts life injured five others and caused the destruc ¬ tion of Dave Fergusons BellBuzzer sev ¬ enth in this years Kentucky Derby among thoroughbreds burned burnedA A groom employed by N T Mayo where horses were in one of the razed barns told police that McCammish said to him Dont sleep too tight tonight Theres liable to be a fire around this place before morn ¬ ing McCammish denied making the state ¬ ment mentScott Scott who was 56 years old died of burns Those injured were Mike Ayers 56 kicked by a horse Al Buckelew 16 exercise boy burned while escaping over a flaming fence George Keating a volunteer rescue worker kicked by a horse Ebby Martell a member of an engine company fighting the fire kicked by a horse and Capt Joseph Koster of Engine Company No 17 knocked down by a horse horseThe The fire started about midnight in Barn No 10 and quickly spread to Barn 10A Both were in the southeast corner of the grounds Fortunately the wind sweep was eastward across a vacant field otherwise all the barns in that area probably would have been fired and the grandstand could have been endangered


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1940s/drf1944062001/drf1944062001_22_2
Local Identifier: drf1944062001_22_2
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800