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Robert Earhart: Hero Or Hero?

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Robert Earhart was one of nearly 70 City of Seattle fire fighters who responded to the fire alarm at a largely abandoned Crest apartment building. Once arriving at the scene fire investigators suspected arson, the defendant Clyde Leech , was arrested at the scene, and further substantial evidence against the defendant included him being seen leaving the apartment building moments before smoke emerged from the abandoned area. Robert Earhart, whom should be considered a hero, died that night of carbon monoxide poisoning while fighting to extinguish the raging fire. When his body was found, his breathing apparatus lied on the floor beside him with the air bottle reading at or near zero. Late tests confirmed that his breathing apparatus was not empty but simply empty. …show more content…

While I do agree that Earhart might still be alive if he had gotten a new bottle of air before entering the burning building, I still hold the defendant Leech criminally responsible for his death. Earhart's death was a consequence of the defendant's action, by setting the fire the defendant unintentionally lured Earhart to his death suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of the fire. The issue whether Earhart and the Seattle Fire Department obeyed safety regulations does not provide sufficient evidence that Earhart would've survived the incident if he had a new can of air. So yes I do agree that Clyde Leech's action in setting the fire proximately caused the death of a hero fire fighter in Robert

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