Test of Weapon Started Shop Fire, Report Says

A fire and explosion in a Pasadena-area gun shop that killed four people and critically burned a 3-year-old girl earlier this month was started by a semiautomatic weapon being tested in a basement firing range, authorities said Friday.

Michael Fowler, 40, had been testing a .45-caliber MAC-10 in a steel-encased shooting tunnel Dec. 11 when the weapon’s “muzzle fire,” a 10- to 12-inch flame, ignited highly flammable polyurethane foam lining the area, according to a joint report by Los Angeles County Fire and Sheriff’s Department investigators.

Fowler tried desperately to control the blaze at Fowler’s Gun Shop with a fire extinguisher, but the flames quickly got out of hand and spread to gunpowder stored in the basement, officials said.

The fire and subsequent explosion killed Fowler, his 60-year-old mother, Colleen, and employees Robert Ellington, 71, and Laurie Henderson, 25.

Fowler’s young daughter, Crystalyn, was carried from the inferno by another employee. She remains in critical but stable condition at Brotman Memorial Hospital in Culver City with second- and third-degree burns on her face, neck and chest, a hospital spokesperson said Friday.

The shooting tunnel, built in 1982, was supposed to be fireproof, employee Leonard Knolhoff said Friday.

Tunnel Lined With Foam

“There was every precaution you could think of so that a fire would not occur,” he said.

The 49-foot-long test-fire tunnel was lined with high-density foam to soundproof it, the employee said.

Knolhoff said that he did not know where Fowler had purchased the materials for the tunnel but that Fowler had told him that he was assured by the manufacturers that the foam would not burn.

Polyurethane foam is extremely flammable unless it is treated with fire-retardant chemicals, county Fire Battalion Chief Jerry Meehan said. “It’s obvious that it wasn’t. . . . Those kinds of fires are very difficult to control.”

An empty fire extinguisher was found on the counter of the tunnel, where Fowler apparently dropped it when its contents ran out. Fowler’s body was found on the floor near the steps leading to the first floor of the shop at 281 S. Rosemead Blvd.

“(Fowler) was doing everything he could to put out the fire,” Meehan said. “It just got away from him.”

Ex-Wife Seeks Damages

Fowler’s ex-wife, Candis, has filed a wrongful-death suit in Pasadena Superior Court seeking unspecified damages against the as-yet-unknown manufacturers of the foam. Her attorney, Harry Scolinos, said Friday that the suit also seeks damages from Fowler Sports Center Inc. for Crystalyn’s injuries and from the manufacturers of the girl’s dress, which “went up like a match” during the fire.

Knolhoff said that when the fire broke out, Colleen Fowler, her granddaughter and the two other employees were upstairs.

“Mike had phoned upstairs asking for another fire extinguisher,” Knolhoff said.

But heavy smoke made it impossible for anyone to get down the stairs, he said. Fowler’s mother then called the Fire Department.

Her last words were her screams to employee Brent Hanson to take her granddaughter to safety.

Moments later, there was an explosion that reverberated for blocks.

The Fowlers took great care, employees said, to make sure that the building was safe, including storing gunpowder in a special vault.

“They made all those precautions so that there wouldn’t be an accident,” Knolhoff said Friday. “They wanted to protect everybody. It’s a real sad situation.”