Construction boss charged with manslaughter for worker death
By Emily Saul
June 6, 2016 | 7:01pm
A construction company owner faces manslaughter and other charges in the death of an employee who fell six stories to his death at a Coney Island construction site last year.
Salvatore Schirripa, 66, was indicted for failing to adhere to safety regulations at the 360 Neptune Ave. work site that could have saved the life of hardhat Vidal Sanchez Ramon.
Ramon was pouring and smoothing concrete on the sixth floor of the commercial building last April when he toppled off the edge of the structure.
The 50-year-old was an undocumented immigrant who was sending money home to his wife and children in Mexico.
A red-eyed Schirripa pleaded “not guilty” to a slew of charges in front of Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun Monday, including second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, falsifying business records and violation of the worker’s compensation law.
‘A hardworking man died tragically and unnecessarily because proper safety measures were not taken to protect his life.’ - Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson
The city Building Code requires that workers wear harnesses and that elevated work sites are outfitted with a protective fence, which was not the case at 360 Neptune, authorities said.
Schirripa had previously been served with four notices for violations from Sept. 2011 to Aug. 2014, ordering he provide guardrails and handrail systems to protect workers from falls.
While guardrails had been installed at the site, they were three feet from the edge, leaving unprotected work space between the rail and the edge, and requiring workers to step over the fence, without harnesses, to pour concrete.
Schirripa also neglected to obtain workers’ compensation insurance or to contribute to an unemployment insurance fund for employees of his J&M Corp.–going so far as to submit a false certificate of coverage to the NYC DOB, authorities said.
His contacting companies, J&M Metro General Contracting Corp, and Metrotech Development Development Corp, were also named in the indictment.
“A hardworking man died tragically and unnecessarily because proper safety measures were not taken to protect his life,” Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson said in a statement. “As buildings go up all over Brooklyn, we owe it to every construction worker to make sure that they don’t lose their lives due to short cuts on safety.”
Schirripa posted $35G bail immediately Monday and rushed from court with a cap pulled low over his head. He was accompanied by his son and attorney, who declined comment.
He’s expected back in court Sept. 7, and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Two Miners in Crystal Springs, Mississippi, Buried More Than 60 Hours
by Chris Essner and Shamar Walters
Two Miners Missing In Gravel Pit Collapse 1:30
Rescue crews on Monday will continue trying to reach two miners who have been buried for over 60 hours following a gravel-pit collapse in Mississippi.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said the men were operating an excavator and a dump truck Friday at the bottom of a pit in Crystal Springs when they were "engulfed" by a wall of sludge-like material.
Officials believe the men are trapped under around 10 feet of mud, sand and gravel, according to NBC station WLBT. 
The site of the landslide in Crystal Springs, Mississippi. WLTB
"Additional equipment is coming in and we're going to continue going," MEMA's Ray Coleman told a press conference late Sunday. "There's no stopping."
Officials acknowledged that the odds of rescuing the men were slim.
"It's a miracle if we find anyone alive [but] I always have hope," Copiah County Sheriff Harold Jones told the Clarion-Ledger.
Emergency officials were notified at around noon local time Friday (1 p.m. ET) that there had been accident at the Harmony Mine and Mill, run by Green Brothers Gravel Company Inc.
Crews were forced to halt their rescue attempt that day after the rain-soaked material at the pit prompted more landslides, according to the MEMA.
Workers have constructed a road to allow a crane to drive across the unstable material to reach the site, where more than two dozen men were working to recover the miners.
They have been unsuccessful in lifting the crane, but will first attempt to lift the lighter dumper trucker, the agency said Sunday.
The names of the missing miners have not been publicly released by officials. Their families identified them to NBC station WLBT as Emmitt Shorter and James "Dee" Hemphill. 
A Mississippi Emergency Management Agency team at the site of the landslide. Mississippi Emergency Management Agency
California firefighters gaining against Calabasas blaze; evacuations lifted
By Joe Sutton and Joshua Berlinger, CNN
Updated 12:16 AM ET, Mon June 6, 2016
California fires claim 600 homes, threaten thousands more
Story highlights
The fire was 80% contained as of Sunday evening
All evacuation orders will be lifted Sunday evening, authorities ay
(CNN)Hundreds of firefighters gained ground Sunday against a wildfire in Los Angeles County that forced at least 5,000 people to evacuate their homes, authorities said.
All evacuation orders will be lifted Sunday evening, Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp said.
Since the inferno started Saturday, it has already scorched more than 500 acres, Tripp said.
The fire was raging on the slope of a canyon, "which makes it very dangerous for us to do a direct attack," Tripp said.
The wildfire broke out Saturday afternoon in the Calabasas area, a relatively affluent part of Los Angeles County that is home to a handful of celebrities, including Jessica Simpson and Toni Braxton, authorities said.
Firefighters battle the blaze near Calabasas on Saturday.
About 3,700 homes -- or about 5,000 people -- were ordered to evacuate in Calabasas and nearby Topanga, mountainous communities west of Los Angeles and north of Malibu.
"The fire is not on the road, it is halfway up the side of a mountain," Tripp said Sunday morning. "That's why we can't let people back in their homes."
So far, the blaze has destroyed a large building and damaged two homes, he said.
How it started
The fire started around 4:15 p.m. Saturday when a pickup truck struck a power pole on Mulholland Highway in Calabasas, the sheriff's department said.
"Witnesses reported that the truck was traveling at a high rate of speed before colliding into a power pole, causing the pole to fall and a transformer to explode, thus igniting the Calabasas fire," Deputy Jeffrey A. Gordon said.
Temperatures in nearby Topanga reached the mid-90s earlier in the day, according to the National Weather Service.
The fire has been dubbed the "Old Fire" due to its proximity to Old Topanga Canyon Road. It came right up to the edges of Calabasas High School and Viewpoint School.
Fighting blaze with garden hoses
About 400 firefighters, along with water-dropping helicopters, worked to contain the blaze, Tripp said.
He said three firefighters were injured. Two suffered knee injuries, and one had a "cardiac event."
"This is extremely arduous work for them to do," Tripp said.
Steve Gentry, a photojournalist who filmed the firefighters, told CNN the situation was "very serious."
Firefighters outside Calabasas, California, on Saturday.
"At one point, the fire was licking right up through to the backyards of a lot of the homes of the residents in that area, to the point where even sheriffs' deputies were grabbing garden hoses and using them to fight the fire," he said.
"Things here in California, they're very dry and it doesn't take a whole lot for a fire to get going and spread really rapidly."
Pictures of the blaze show residents staring at bright, tall flames creeping toward the sky, visible from nearby streets.
Roseann Bleiweiss' son told CNN the fire looked like "something out of a movie."
One social media user said ash could be spotted as far away as Dodger Stadium, about 30 miles away.
Celebrities also spoke about the fire.
Ellen DeGeneres tweeted that her brother-in-law was out fighting the blaze.
"Sending thanks to Portia's brother Michael & all the rescue workers on the scene of this dangerous fire," she said.
Calabasas and the nearby Santa Monica Mountains are not strangers to wildfires -- the area has experienced many dangerous blazes over the years.
A particularly strong fire in 2013 burned nearly 28,000 acres in two days, threatening thousands of homes in Ventura County.
Soomair family arrested Saturday (Osceola County Jail)
Stephanie Allen Staff Writer
Investigators: Family accused of arson, insurance fraud after auto shop fire
The smoke and sirens were déjà vu for the Soomair family.
Exactly six years after their transmission shop in New York went up in flames, their new shop off East Colonial Drive in Orlando did the same, records show.
This time, though, officials said they quickly noticed something wasn't right.
Detectives on Saturday — more than a year after the fire — arrested the family, Ramdularie Soomair, 69, her husband, Surujlal Soomair, 59, and their son, 40-year-old Navin Soomair.
The father and son duo are facing charges of intentionally setting the fire, grand theft and insurance fraud, arrest reports state. Ramdularie Soomair is accused of signing a falsified insurance claim document, the reports state.
Investigators said the father and son, who ran DNS Transmission, repeatedly gave conflicting and changing statements after the fire on March 21, 2015.
There were holes in both of their alibis, investigators said, and cellphone records showed both were in the area of the shop just before Orange County Fire Rescue crews were called that morning.
Evidence also showed the fire was intentionally set with gasoline and originated from two separate vehicles inside the shop, according to the report.
In total, five customer's vehicles and the rented building were damaged.
Two days after the fire, the family filed an insurance claim for nearly $500,000 in lost inventory — a claim investigators said was highly exaggerated.
An inventory report from three months before the fire showed the company had about $40,000 in inventory, according to the arrest affidavit.
The family received $100,000 in insurance money after the March 21, 2009 fire at their shop in New York, records show.
The state fire marshal's office, which investigated the incident, said Navin Soomair called detectives early last month to check on the status of the case. Detectives interviewed him again and then had him take a voice-analysis test, which showed deception, the report states.
All three were arrested Saturday from their home in Poinciana and have since bailed out of jail
In Navin Soomair's arrest affidavit, investigators wrote that he is not a U.S. Citizen. It didn't say where he is from.
Tanker truck crashes, spilling diesel on I-5 (KATU News photo)
