The Michigan Court of Appeals has upheld a decision permitting a lawsuit to proceed against former Flint firefighters Daniel Sniegocki and Michael Zlotek, who stand accused of failing to discover two children during a primary search at a fatal house fire, according to mlive. The boys, identified as Zyaire Mitchell, 12, and Lamar Mitchell, 9, died in the hospital days after the May 28, 2022, blaze on Pulaski Street in Flint, succumbing to smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning. An initial report from firefighters Sniegocki and Zlotek indicated an all-clear, but the children were found seven minutes later by another crew in a second-floor bedroom, a fact that former Flint Fire Chief Raymond Barton suggested reflected either overlooked areas during the search or false reporting.
The lawsuit, which seeks $50 million and is filed by Crystal Cooper, the mother of the deceased boys, maintains that the firefighters' failure to locate her children amounted to gross negligence, as the Detroit Free Press reports; during the fateful event, there were initial reports of a completed search on the property, however, subsequent findings indicated that the boys had not been discovered until a secondary crew intervened, bringing into question the thoroughness and accuracy of the first responders' search. Appeals court judges have noted in their unanimous ruling that "false statements" regarding the search created a substantial question for a court or jury regarding whether Sniegocki and Zlotek were negligent in their duties.
The appeal made by the firefighters argued that they were not grossly negligent and emphasized the lack of evidence to suggest that discovering the boys earlier would have altered the outcome, as abc12 elucidates; however, the Court Appeals judges dismissed these claims. Sniegocki and Zlotek also contended that they had no official duty to locate the children, asserting governmental immunity, but the court ruled that once they received an order from a commanding officer to conduct a search, they were obliged to carry out that search with due care to avoid negligence.
Following the fire, an internal investigation by then Chief Barton recommended the dismissal of the two firefighters, but he alleged interference when his recommendation was not upheld, per Detroit Free Press, resulting in a separate legal battle where Barton sued the city and Mayor Sheldon Neeley for wrongful termination after refusing to align his discipline recommendation with what he claimed was a politically motivated agenda.
