Sins of the Fathers: A Real Event Novel

In the predawn hours of December 12, 1975, an arsonist poured gasoline on the stairs of the Gartland Apartments and touched off one of the worst arson fires in San Francisco history. The brick tenement, riddled with dozens of health and safety code violations and under a two-year-old condemnation order from the City, went up like a "five-story torch," according to first responders. By the time the fire was out,14 people were dead, dozens of SF Firemen and tenants were critically injured, and more than a hundred low-income residents were left homeless. This novella is based on that real event that shocked San Francisco as soon through there eyes of three fictional characters: teenage Rory who is searching for his alcoholic scofflaw father who may, or may not, have died in the fire, the professional arsonist and his accomplice known only as "The Torch" and veteran SFPD detective "Whitey" Larkin who has chased the Torch for years. The Gartland fire arson case has never been solved (assumed to be one of a several 'renovation fires' that raced through the low-income apartment buildings) and more than four decades later the arsonist-for-profit remains unknown. This fictionalized account of the true event tries to answer some of those questions.