BRIDGEPORT — Rinh Thach survived the fire in his West Side home that killed his wife and three children in June. Now he claims the city may be responsible for their deaths.

Thach's lawyer, John LaCava, Wednesday filed an intent-to-sue notice with the city.

"We are still in the process of investigation, but the investigation at this point leads us to believe there might be claims against the city of Bridgeport," he said.

By filing the notice, LaCava protects his right to later file suit in Superior Court.

"It is the responsibility of the city's fire marshal to make periodic inspections and our investigation leads us to believe this was not done," he said.

The owner of the apartment house on 1647-1649 Iranistan Ave., Hai Pham, 37, of Iranistan Avenue, has pleaded not guilty in Superior Court to four counts of negligent homicide and four counts of violations of the state fire code in connection with the fire. Police said the apartment had no working smoke detectors, had bars on the inside of the windows and an escape route that was nailed shut. They said any of those could have meant the difference between life and death for the victims.

Thirty-five-year-old Thi Luong Thach and her son, Hoang Anh Thach, 14; daughter Thi My Trinh Thach, 11; and 3-year-old daughter Daisey Thach died when a fire broke out in the apartment on June 13.

Rinh Thach, 37, survived but was severely burned in the fire and had an extensive stay at Bridgeport Hospital.

The fire broke out shortly after 4 a.m. in the kitchen of the Thaches' second-floor apartment. According to police and fire investigators, the Thach parents awoke in their rear bedroom to the smell of smoke.

Confronted by a wall of smoke as they entered the kitchen they escaped out the rear door and down the outside rear stairs. Once outside, Rinh Thach ran around to the Iranistan Avenue side of the building to get back in his apartment through the front, where his children were asleep in their rooms.

Meanwhile, his wife braved the thick smoke and flames running back in through the rear door.

Investigators said the husband was unable to get in through the front door because it was locked, so he raced around to the rear.

As he mounted the rear stairs he collided with Jackie Gonzalez, 28, who was desperately fleeing her third-floor apartment with her three young children.

Gonzalez convinced Thach it was too dangerous to go back to his apartment and in a panic he ran back toward the front of the building only to collapse on the sidewalk.

Firefighters attempted to get to the wife, who was in her bedroom, only to be forced back when the third floor collapsed into the second-floor kitchen.

Thi Luong Thach's badly charred body was found on her bedroom floor. In a second bedroom firefighters found the Thach's elder daughter dead in her bed. The 3-year-old, who was in the same bedroom, was found lying outside her crib. In the front bedroom, their son was found lying on the floor next to his bed.

According to the autopsy report, the victims died from smoke inhalation.

In her report, Police Detective Kimberly Biehn states that no smoke detectors were found in the second- or third-floor apartments.

In the son's bedroom a French-style glass-pane door leading to the front stairway had been nailed shut from the inside and was blocked from the outside by a large dresser, she stated. The bedroom windows were encased in homemade security bars that were bolted shut and could not be opened for escape.

Daniel Tepfer, who covers state courts and law enforcement issues, can be reached at 330-6308.