Mom Bobbie Kugler Charged With Starting Fire That Killed Gage,Greg,Kandee & Kaiden

[Whisper]

Bobbie Kugler

Children killed in Grape Street fire identified
Feb 2012

Four children killed—three brothers and their sister. They were all trapped in an upstairs room when their house caught on fire.

Gage Reavey was the oldest. He was 14-years-old. His brother, Greg Kugler, was 13-years-old. Greg was deaf. Their sister, Kandee Kugler was 12-years-old and Kaiden Kugler was 6-years-old. They were trapped up on the second floor. Firefighters tried to get to them, but the fire was so dangerous they were ordered to retreat.

The children moved here from Elmira just a couple of months ago. In their old Elmira neighborhood, the friends of the four children killed set up their own memorial.

Lindzie Shut said, “I miss her and I’m really sorry.”

Malea Molina was good friends with Kandee.

Molina said, “I miss Kandee the most because we used to always have sleepovers and every time we had sleepovers, she would bring over her makeup kit and we would dress up my mom and do her hair.”

The fire started every Saturday morning. The four children were trapped upstairs and the fire just became too big.

Chief John Caufield said, “Our firefighters were willing to put themselves in peril. They risked their lives literally in this case to try to make the rescues.”

News10NBC found security camera video that shows some of the first firefighters getting to the scene. It’s shortly after 1pm in the morning. The white glow is the flashing lights of a fire truck. A few minutes later, more lights. Police have now closed Grape Street and then the video shows two firefighters dragging a hose across Jay Street to hook up a hydrant. And soon after, this is what News10NBC cameras capture, a deadly combination of fire and smoke.

Today, friends of the family put together a tribute video of the four children, Gage, Kandee, Greg (who they also called Junior) and six-year-old Kaiden.

Gage Reavey went to East High School. The other three were at School No. 5. News10NBC spoke with Kandee’s teacher on the phone. She’s very upset and is trying to reach out to the family.

The siblings' mother and her two-year-old child were taken to the hospital. Also in the house that night, 25-year-old James Austin, 15-year-old Waltquaries Evans and 13-year-old Giovanni Delorm. They were able to escape the fire by jumping from a second-story window. Austin is a family friend and Evans and Delorm were sleeping over at the time of the fire.

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/s2504383.shtml?cat=565

April 13 2012

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- A mother who was rescued from a house fire that killed four of her children was charged Friday with setting the fire, but authorities would say little about how or why.

Bobbie Kugler, 31, was scheduled to be arraigned in Rochester City Court Saturday on four counts of manslaughter and arson, Fire Chief John Caufield said at a news conference.

Kugler is the mother of 14-year-old Gage Reavey, 13-year-old Greg Kugler, 12-year-old Kandee Kugler and 6-year-old Kaiden Kugler. All died in the Feb. 18 fire in their two-story Rochester home.
[...]
"This fire is a result of human intervention. This was not an accidental fire," Caufield said.

Fire officials said the blaze began in a first-floor bedroom but declined to say how it started or elaborate on the mother's involvement or motive, citing the pending legal case.

"She is being charged specifically with arson, that being setting a fire and causing the death of her four children," Deputy Chief Mike Wood said.

Charges of manslaughter, he said, stem from "recklessly causing the death of another human being."

[...]
Kugler was arrested Friday in Poughkeepsie, where she has been living. It wasn't known if she had a lawyer. No one answered the phone at a telephone listing in her name.
[...]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1425509.html

[Whisper]

Survivors' family members react to Kugler's arrest for Grape Street Fire
April 14 2012

Bobbie Kugler entered the courtroom this morning and immediately burst into tears. She entered a not guilty plea for all of the charges. Her attorney told the judge she did not intentionally set the fire that ended up taking the lives of her four children.

Family members of two surviving victims were present in court today and they told us they want police to file more charges against Kugler.

It's a scene burned in all of our minds. And we now know what may have been the cause of this grape street fire. That took the lives of four innocent children.

“I just wish that this didn't happen. I wish that she didn't do this," Colleen Bender, the mother of survivor Giovanni Delorm, told News10NBC.

Colleen Bender's son was one of the few who made it out alive and for the first time since the fire. She went face to face with the woman who she says almost killed her son.

“Why? Why would you do that? Put your children in jeopardy and someone else's?”

Bobbie Kugler was charged with arson and four counts of manslaughter early Saturday morning.

Police believe she intentionally set the fire to her home months ago. Even though Kugler faces a number of charges it is still not enough for this family. They say the two young boys who are still alive also deserve justice.

“Their four friends are gone. They tried to save them but they couldn't and their injuries. I mean, it's just traumatic. They just can't be forgotten," Giovanni's Aunt Sharon Merkel said.

Even though the boys are lucky to be alive -- they still have a long road ahead. The family hopes police will charge Kugler with child endangerment.

Colleen Bender told us, “I know she lost four kids but my kid is here and suffering at the same time.”

Three children jumped out of a window to escape the flames that night. All of them are still recovering. 14-year-old Giovanni Delorm had some of the worst injuries. He is out of the hospital though but is still unable to move his hand. Family members told us he was informed that Bobbie Kugler is now charged with manslaughter and arson.
[..]
Police won't say what Kugler did or used to start the fire. But it took two months of investigating to come up with a substantial amount of evidence to charge Kugler with the deaths of her children

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S2582101.shtml?cat=565

[VAS1326]

All I can say is wow....just wow. It's apparent these children had different fathers and I wonder if the two year old was
the child of the newest penis. Isn't that how it always goes? I agree with the mother of the boy who escaped. Why would you put
your own children and other people's children in danger like that? I wish they would give us more information on how and why she started the fire. It's just so senseless and what a horrible way for them to die. I'll be watching for updates on this one.

[HeatherHabilatory]

I'd also like to know how she started the fire, and why they think she did it.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Proving a Rochester mother guilty of manslaughter in the deaths of her four children might come down to whether she knowingly set in motion a deadly chain of events when, police say, she lit pictures of her boyfriend on fire and tossed them onto a dresser filled with combustible materials.

Police say Bobbie Kugler, formerly of Elmira, acknowledged starting the deadly house fire. But her lawyer, assistant public defender Michael Lopez, said Monday he would be "contesting the veracity of these police claims," adding: "I'm sure we'll be litigating that issue." He declined to elaborate.

The account, contained in a felony complaint against Kugler, 31, released Monday, was based in part on "the verbal statement of the defendant, after being advised of and waiving her constitutional rights, admitting to starting the fire," the complaint reads.

Kugler faces charges of fourth-degree arson and four counts of second-degree manslaughter. Police arrested Kugler on Friday in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, where she moved after the fire.
[...]

To prove the manslaughter charge, prosecutors must show that Bobbie Kugler created a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death, knew of the risk, and consciously disregarded the risk in a way that a reasonable person would observe.

Firefighters responded shortly before 1 a.m. Feb. 18 to 82 Grape St. in Rochester for a report of burning clothes outside the residence. That fire now appears unrelated, officials said.

Once on the scene, crews knocked on the door of the residence, but no one answered. They walked around the property and still were at the residence about 20 minutes later when they spotted a fire on the first floor that quickly spread upstairs.
[...]

Firefighters were seconds from entering second-floor windows by ladder, Rochester Fire Department officials have said, but were forced back by the flames and unable to get to the children.

http://www.pressconnects.com/article...ore-fatal-fire