The Mortgage Was Like a Shell Game; So Is Responsibility in 3 Deaths

``On Monday morning, when a fire in the building killed three people who lived on the top floor, it was a warren of rooms nested inside rooms. As the stairway roared with flames, illegally built walls blocked access to the fire escape for Manuel Lopez and Christina Garcia and their 12-year-old son, Christian Garcia. How did the building get this way, and who was responsible? ''