Witness recalls fiery scene as police probe homicide, arson

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ST. THOMAS – Police here taped off a downtown-area intersection and an adjacent parking lot Wednesday as they investigated a homicide and an arson while witnesses recalled a fiery scene of late-night violence.

What appeared to be a large blood stain could be seen in the lot at the intersection of Hiawatha and Curtis streets, where St. Thomas police said officers and firefighters were called at about 12:30 a.m. to a blaze at 20 Hiawatha St.

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The multi-unit home – one block from Talbot Street, the city’s main downtown area – showed clear fire damage to an exterior stairway leading to one unit, with insulation and debris strewn on the sidewalk below.

Police say that when emergency crews arrived, they found a woman with life-threatening injuries that they say were unrelated to the fire. The woman was taken to hospital where she died, police said.

Investigators are treating the fire as an arson and the death as a homicide, police said, adding the investigation was in its early stages.

St. Thomas police asked for anyone who may have been in the area at the time or who has video surveillance to call 519- 631-1224 or submit an anonymous tip through Crime Stoppers.

One neighbour to the charred building recalled seeing it ablaze shortly after midnight and an injured woman on the ground nearby.

“It was horrible. I couldn’t believe it,” Dustin Dye said, recalling a person pounded on his door to alert him to the fire and the injury.

Dye said he saw the woman being taken away in an ambulance. “I see the lady walking all the time with their dogs, because I’m out here walking my dogs, and she seems like an alright person.”

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Eric Kokko has lived in the fire-damaged building for more than 12 years and recalled the frantic moments after the fire began.

“(There was a) lady running around the building (yelling) ‘the building is on fire.’ I looked out my bedroom – I could have touched the flames,” Kokko said, adding he believed he heard a gunshot amid the chaos.

Another tenant, Jeff Stamp, described feeling “overwhelmed” by the fact he’s been forced from his home in the fire’s aftermath. “Like, what are we going to do now?”

jmoulton@postmedia.com

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