Tragic journey of killer 'Pyro Pang'

January 5, 1995, is a day that is etched in the memory of every citizen of Seattle. In this sweepingly beautiful, go-ahead city perched on America's north-western tip, inhabitants bask in the glory of the area's reputation as the epicentre of coffee house culture - not to mention of the cyber-revolution, led by local residents Bill Gates and Microsoft.

Usually, the city presents little more to complain about than the frequent rain; but on that chilly winter day more than three years ago, firemen arrived at a blaze in a downtown neighbourhood unprepared for the tragedy that lay in wait for them.

As two long-serving lieutenants and two of their junior colleagues were making their way through thick smoke on the building's ground floor, the floor gave way and they plunged into searing heat and flames in the basement. All four men - two of whom were married with children - died, making it the worst single tragedy in the history of the Seattle fire department.

The incident, at the Chinese frozen food warehouse of a successful entrepreneur, Mary Pang, resounded through the city's administration long after the four heroes were buried. Amid allegations that the fire department had lax safety and training standards for its men, the department has been dealing with lawsuits from the four widows, even as it searches its own soul in the wake of the tragic loss.

If the blaze was a tragedy for the families and colleagues of the dead, it was, in its own way, both a personal and financial nightmare for Mary and her husband Harry: while the loss of their famous frozen food business hurt their well-earned retirement, they have been more pained by the loss of something much closer to home.

It was not until this summer that the healing process could really begin. It was then that the Pangs' 43-year-old son, Martin, stood before a judge to receive a 35-year jail term for having deliberately started the blaze that killed the firefighters.