BY FRAIDY REISS
Correspondent
FREEHOLD – What taxpayers deserve, according to Middletown attorney Larry Loigman, is to see a county official take responsibility for the lack of a fire-suppression system in the historic Thompson Park mansion that was destroyed in a Feb. 6 fire.
“Someone should come forward and say it was their fault sprinklers were not installed in the building,” Loigman told the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders during their regular meeting on the evening of Feb. 9. “Someone needs to say they made that decision; it was a wrongheaded decision; it was a stupid decision.”
The county park system was completing a $3.7 million renovation of the Middletown park’s 110-year-old mansion, which housed a visitors center and park system offices, when the fire broke out on the morning of Feb. 6. No one was injured as the mansion was destroyed.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation and will be discussed at a Feb. 15 press conference, but Freeholder Director William C. Barham said the blaze – to which 17 fire companies
responded – was not considered
suspicious and was not caused by electrical problems.
In an apparent response to Loigman’s criticism, the park system’s principal historic preservation specialist, Gail Hunton, told the freeholders that sprinklers had been installed only in the basement of the mansion based on a “comprehensive code review” conducted during the renovation project’s planning stages that showed a full sprinkler system in the rest of the building was not required.
“We rely on licensed professionals for these code decisions,” Hunton said. “They’re the ones who have to make recommendations to us.”
Loigman later said that county officials should have gone beyond the absolute minimum required by code for the historic building.
“When you were buying furniture for that building you didn’t go out and get folding chairs,” he said. “If you can spend extra money for furnishings, you should be spending the extra money for safety.”
Freeholder Lillian Burry, who was named liaison to the park system on Feb. 6 while the Thompson mansion was still burning, said Loigman’s criticism of county officials was inappropriate.
“These people are in mourning,” Burry said. “You’re going to kick them when they’re down?”