As Timothy Carter-Camp walked to take a seat on the witness stand last week, his short-sleeved shirt made it easy to see the faces of his three children tattooed on his forearm.
"Father," he answered when asked about his relationship to Keahana A. Carter Camp, 8.
"And your relationship to Timothy B. Carter Camp II?" asked attorney Bernard Layne, about the 7-year-old.
"Father," he said again.
"Jeremiah R. Carter-Camp?" Layne asked.
"Father," Timothy Carter-Camp responded, a third time, to the question about his 3-year-old.
"And your relationship to Alisha Carmella Carter-Camp?" Layne then asked.
"Husband," he said.
Alisha Carter-Camp, 26, and her three children were among the nine people killed in the deadliest fire in Charleston's history - at 2 Arlington Ave. on March 24, 2012.
Last week, survivors of those killed gathered in a courtroom to discuss the settlements to lawsuits over the fire.
"I know nobody wants to be here talking about money," Kanawha Circuit Judge Carrie Webster told the relatives in the courtroom.
At the Jan. 27 hearing, Webster approved settlement agreements in nine cases filed against Delores Shamblin, who owned the Arlington Avenue house. Survivors also agreed to release Shamblin from any past or future damages resulting from the fire.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ruled the cause of the Arlington Avenue fire "undetermined." The fire was traced to a home entertainment center in the house's sunroom, where multiple electronics were found plugged in. Firefighters also discovered the remains of a candle holder, which was picked up by a dog trained to detect ignition sources.
The lawsuits, which were consolidated, alleged that Shamblin had been told about recurring electrical problems at her Arlington Avenue property and did nothing about it. She also failed to maintain smoke alarms at the residence, according to the complaints.
State law requires landlords to install smoke detectors in each rental unit bedroom, among other places. The lawsuits stated that Shamblin's tenants believed electrical problems had been occurring at the house because of leaky water pipes in the walls. There also had been problems with electrical wiring in the house, according to the complaints.
The settlement amounts are confidential, and fire victims' families were prohibited from discussing them.
Shamblin did not attend last week's hearing. The house was demolished in August 2013, more than a year after the fire.
At the time of the fire, Alisha Carter-Camp and her children were living in the house with her sister, Latasha Jones-Isabell, and Jones-Isabell's two children, Elijah John Scott, 3, and Emmanuel Charles Jones-Isabell, 20 months.
Latasha Jones-Isabell escaped the fire, but her two sons did not.
She sat in the back of the courtroom. On either side of her sat her children's fathers, Terrell Hughes and Timothy Scott.
Jones-Isabell told the judge that she would agree to split the settlement equally with her son's fathers. Her mother, Talma Isabell, is the administrator of her son's estates.
Talma Isabell lost a daughter and five grandchildren in the fire. The judge seemed concerned why she hadn't filed a claim.
"Do you have any expenses?" Webster asked her.
"Well, I'm a widow," Talma Isabell replied. She told the judge that funeral expenses had been covered by donations from the community.
The judge asked Timothy Carter-Camp, who is administrator of his wife and three children's estates, if he would mind if some of the money from those estates was distributed to her.
"Whatever you decide," Carter-Camp said. He and Isabell told Webster they remained close friends.
Talma Isabell also explained to the judge that there had been some confusion after the fire, as Alisha had told her family that she had gotten divorced from Timothy Carter-Camp.
"It was a big mess. I didn't realize they weren't [divorced] until after he showed up at the hospital," Talma Isabell said. "I'm the one who identified the bodies."
At the time of the fire, Alisha was seeing Alexander Seals, 24, of Pittsburgh. Seals had come to Charleston with his two daughters, McKenzie, 4, and Gabrielle, 6, to visit for the weekend.
They all died in the fire.
Seals' parents and the mother of his children, Sharday McGee, all of Pennsylvania, were in the courtroom last week.
McGee is the administrator of the estates of her daughters. But after learning McGee had a 14-year-old son on Wednesday, Webster appointed an attorney to serve as a guardian to protect his interests in the settlement.
Seals is not the father of McGee's son, but the judge pointed out that the boy had lived in the same home as his two half-sisters.
Webster asked McGee to consider whether her son had any special needs or might want to set up some type of fund for his future with the settlement.
After she was asked several questions about the settlement, Gertrude LaVert, Alexander Seals' mother, was asked by the judge if she had any questions or concerns.
"I just want this settled," Lavert said.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.