The state fire marshal’s decision not to file criminal charges in a fatal explosion has no bearing on a potential civil lawsuit, the family’s lawyer said this morning.

Dale Ann Fussell, 64, was killed Feb. 12 in a pre-dawn explosion that leveled the duplex where she lived at 29- 31 Bluff Road.

Terry Garmey of Portland said he’s served property owner Atlantic Townhouse Apartments, property manager Keystone Management and propane supplier Irving Oil with notices of intent to sue.

“It’s important to recognize the difference between criminal law, which is intended to punish the wrong-doer, and a civil case, which is to make the wronged party whole with money,” Garmey said today. “The burden of proof in a criminal case is ‘beyond a reasonable doubt.’ It’s lower — probability — in a civil case.”

Sgt. Ken Grimes of the state fire marshal’s office said Tuesday his office has not issued a final report, and one will not be complete until it receives information from the Oil and Solid Fuel Board, a subagency of the Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation.

Grimes, who is leading the investigation into the explosion for the fire marshal’s office, said the decision by his office not to file charges — announced Tuesday — was made without any information from the fuel board.

“We are not going to be charging, but the regulatory process is still ongoing,” he said Tuesday.

Grimes said it could take weeks or months before the official fire marshal’s office report is complete.

Garmey also is awaiting that report.

“That’s the next step,” Garmey said, “and we’ll talk to witnesses and experts.

“I’d rather be accurate and complete than soon,” Garmey said. “We’re not blaming any particular party. Facts are stubborn things. They stick around.”

Garmey would not respond to widespread reports1 that Fussell’s heater was replaced just prior to the fire.

“We don’t know yet who’s responsible for this explosion,” he said. “We’re going to let justice work its way out.”

Fussell’s friend, Vera Darling of Washington Street, said Fussell had been ill for a couple of weeks prior to the explosion.

“She had been complaining of a gas smell,” Darling told The Times Record. “That’s why they put a new Monitor in,” she said, referring to a popular model of gas heater.

Friends also said Fussell had been complaining of a gas smell for weeks.

lgrard@timesrecord.com