In the aftermath of the fatal Burien fire that struck the Tara and Jenny Marie apartments, stories of shadowy figures, harrowing escapes and compassionate helpers surfaced.

Days after a fence was erected an unusual figure lurked on the fringes.

"I would never do anything like this," the man said.

Identified by some residents as a person making threats outside the apartments just days before the arson fire, the man claims to have done nothing more than cashed his check and bought some alcohol the night of the fire.

He appeared tormented and mournful at the death of eight-year-old Edgar Cisneros.

While agitated and fidgety, he asked the security officer by the fence, "What did the bodies look like? Were they burnt bad?"

To bystanders who would listen, he pleaded, "Look, I brought these flowers today. Tell them I didn't do this."

Later, while clutching the fence, he would mumble about having dreams "full of smoke and screaming voices."

Afterwards he just wandered off aimlessly to sit in front of his nearby apartment.

Fire investigators have interviewed him.

The voice of musician Shan Coleman, father of three girls, tightens as he recounts the terrifying fire.

He says as he was exiting his car that early Sunday morning after returning home from work, he saw flames shooting from the center accessway mailbox of the Tara Apartments.

He then spotted a child no more than three or four years old sitting on the stoop, just feet away from the fire.

As he handed the child to a neighbor, Coleman saw a woman trapped behind a glass door.

"She was screaming and banging on the glass with her hands," Coleman remembered. "She was seconds from cutting herself badly trying to escape."

Coleman found a 15-pound rock which he swiftly hurled through the glass freeing her from the blaze.

While awaiting rescuers, he and others alerted residents about the rapidly growing danger.

"I'm not a hero. I was just doing the human thing," Coleman observes.

Teddy bears, Mickey Mouse and hand-drawn "good-byes" cover a fence surrounding the burnt out shells that used to be The Tara and Jenny Marie apartments.

As the sun slowly crept behind the hill, mourners like Fernando Gomez and neighborhood playmates like Bethany Binner slowly travelled the street and thoughtfully left mementos for Edgar.

Brad Pierson cried as he passed the tree he remembered Edgar climbing.

He wiped his eyes as he recalled the proud little boy that often ran up to him proclaiming, "Hello, I'm Mexican" with a bright smile on his face.

On the Fourth of July, a memorial was held at the street- side shrine as Edgar's extended family gathered together in matching t-shirts and white balloons to share memories of the little boy.

Edgar's father, Jaime Cisneros, who lost a father and a son on the same day, now wears facial burns as a painful reminder.

Individual Burien citizens also took the fire devastation personally.

Jared Butcher, lead singer for Sickmore, heard about the fire and began gathering clothes to donate to the victims.

"But there just wasn't enough," He regretted.

This bothered him until he began to call other bands and businesses in Burien to say, "We should do something for these people."

He and his wife, Terri, worked the phones, sent out e-mails and called in a few favors and committed Bison Creek Pizza to donate a location to raise funds and drop off supplies.

Butcher joined forces with Sterling Bank to make sure the money got to the victims, and convinced Sudden Printing to donate hundreds of free flyers.

The bands, Sickmore, Horsehedd, More and Skwish as well as John Rockwell, played 45-minute sets for free as well as creating music CD's to generate extra donations.

All this effort was for victims like David and Liz Baggott who lost everything they own in the fire and need help finding a place to stay.

Pam Ward, who described herself as the "family-history keeper" lost every photo she had and said she desperately needed work clothes.

Shanell Rose woke up from a dead sleep that night and had to literally throw herself off a second-story balcony with the clothes on her back to live.