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Father To Sue 4 Businesses After Children Die In House Fire

POSTED: Monday, June 19, 2006

A man who lost two of his children in a fire last month is planning to sue four businesses, he said, to prevent any more senseless deaths.

On Sunday, Robert Bullock spent his first Father's Day without his two children, 5-year-old Alyssa and 7-year-old Robert "Buddy". The children died in April after their mother found that a small fire in their bedroom had burned itself out, filling their room with smoke.

"A lot of things I used to do, I don't do -- not now. I can't," Bullock said. "No one should have to lose their kids."

Although there's no official cause of the fire inside the family's Westside mobile home, the investigation has focused on a disco light the children had got from a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant shortly before the fatal fire.

The restaurant chain has pulled the light off the shelves nationwide as the investigation continues, but the father said that's not enough. He plans to sue Chuck E. Cheese's distributors, Manley Toys, the manufacturer of the light, the owner of Magnolia Circle Mobile Home Park where the children lived and Redman Homes, which is the manufacturer of their mobile home.

"No other parent should have to go through this. It's not right. It's not fair," Bullock said.
Bullock Childrens' Toys On Bench
The toys Alyssa Bullock got for her 5th birthday, including the disco light, sat on a plastic toy bench in the children's' bedroom.

The attorney representing Bullock, Steve Browning, said even though the fire marshal hasn't determined the cause of the fire, filing a lawsuit would be one way to find out what really happened.

"There is a reasonable suspicion that the disco light was the cause of the fire," Browning said. "When this type of tragedy happens, it's time for all companies who manufacture toys or market to young children to take a good, hard look at what they've been doing."

Bullock told Channel 4 that the owner of the mobile home park and the manufacturer of the mobile home are being sued because he has not been able to gain access into the mobile home park to see the wiring and the smoke detectors in the house.

"It's not the sort of thing we believe should happen in Jacksonville or anywhere else where a birthday party where a kid gets a toy causes their death," Browning said.

Bullock also told Channel 4 that anyone thinking he is filing the suit for financial reasons is wrong.

"I want to know what happened and that's the whole thing. I want to know what happened so no one else has to go through what I went through," Bullock said.

Chuck E. Cheese said until it receives a copy of the suit, it has no comment and that it has voluntarily pulled the disco light from all stores. Shortly after the incident, Manley Toys said it has ceased distribution of the product.

Magnolia Circle Mobile Home Park has not returned Channel 4's phone calls, but Redman Homes said that all of their homes are safe and in compliance with the Housing and Urban Development code, reporter Emily Pantelides said.

A press conference during which Bullock and his lawyers will announce a buyback is expected to take place Tuesday.

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