Coast2Coast Swingers Blog

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A year after one of the biggest fires in the city’s history, three people are charged with accidentally setting it.

Fire investigators say the three men were trying to take scrap metal from a warehouse on Zane Street when a blowtorch started the fire.

A lot of twists in this case -- for example, one of the men now charged in connection to the fire owned a swingers club next door and had sued the fire department after the fire for shutting off the sprinklers.

Bart Cohen was arrested last night. He's the owner of Bluegrass Secrets, a swingers club that was housed next to the warehouse.

Police say he and two other men -- Michael Pederson and Robert Vaillaincourt -- broke into that warehouse on Zane Street last St. Patrick’s Day and used a cutting torch to remove some metal items to sell to recycling centers.

A spark from that torch began a fire that eventually engulfed the warehouse, resulting in a five-alarm fire that required nearly 150 firefighters to put it out.

All three men were in court Thursday charged with burglary and wanton endangerment.

I spoke to Major Henry Ott with metro Arson, who says Vaillancourt and Pederson both have drug charges in their criminal history and that could be what motivated them to steal the metal.

I also spoke to Bart Cohen’s attorney, who told me that Cohen was trying to keep the warehouse safe since the fire department had shut off the sprinkler system.