U.S. Judge Again Dismisses Families’ Lawsuit Over Stricker Street Fire

Baltimore suffered another legal setback when U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Maddox dismissed for a second time the wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the families of three firefighters killed in a vacant-rowhouse blaze on South Stricker Street, leaving the families without a federal avenue on the due-process claims they advanced.

Lt. Kelsey Sadler, Lt. Paul Butrim and EMT/firefighter Kenny Lacayo died while fighting the two-alarm fire on Jan. 24, 2022 in the 200 block of S. Stricker Street near West Pratt Street in the Mount Clare area; EMT/firefighter John McMaster was seriously injured and is part of the civil case. The rowhouse partially collapsed during the response after crews made an interior attack, and the families’ 2025 complaint alleged city recordkeeping failures and the elimination or scaling back of a program known as Code X-Ray that previously flagged unsafe vacant buildings for dispatch.

Maddox issued a 30-page opinion dated Feb. 20, 2026 and concluded the pleading did not meet federal legal standards. The judge wrote, "While the allegations are tragic and alarming, they are not enough to support the claims by the families of the victims." Maddox had previously dismissed an earlier iteration of the lawsuit in 2024 for similar shortcomings, and the latest ruling again turned on the plaintiffs’ failure to plead the kind of deliberate indifference or intent that federal due-process theories require.

City lawyers had argued the complaint fell short of showing the requisite deliberate indifference by municipal officials or that the city intended harm by withdrawing or deactivating the dispatch flags the suit described. Plaintiffs originally filed in Baltimore Circuit Court in 2025 before the case was removed to federal court; court papers and the full opinion have not been released in these reports, and lawyers for the families could not be reached immediately for comment.

The civil dismissal comes while the criminal investigation advances. In November 2025, police arrested James Barnett, 57, on charges including arson, murder, reckless endangerment and involuntary manslaughter in the Stricker Street fire. Charging documents say Barnett told investigators in two interviews that he had previously lived in the vacant home before being kicked out, and the papers note 13 prior convictions, including for vacant-home break-ins.

Families were described as stunned by the second federal dismissal but have indicated they will continue pushing for safeguards to keep crews out of dangerously unstable vacants. The ruling leaves the civil accountability claim on ice even as prosecutors proceed against the man charged in the blaze, and it keeps open the possibility that plaintiffs’ lawyers may seek to refile their wrongful-death claims in light of the criminal case and any additional evidence.