Residents tell of noise, violence at flophouse
Sep 15, 2008 - 12:42 PM
By Jeff Mitchell
OSHAWA -- Residents of a downtown Oshawa neighbourhood are in shock after a fire at a troubled rooming house left a man with burns to his body.
Durham police are remaining tight-lipped about the Saturday morning incident, which they're describing as a suspicious fire. Police cordoned off two scenes after the 8 a.m. blaze: a brick rooming house at the corner of Celina and John streets and an area of Memorial Park a block to the west of the house.
A man who had sustained burns made his way across the street from the house and was found standing on a front porch as emergency personnel arrived, police said. A witness on the scene said the man was badly burned.
"He looked pretty bad," said the witness, who didn't want his name published.
"He was (lucid); he was talking," the witness said.
"He said. 'They dumped lighter fluid on me'."
Police have not confirmed the man's injuries were the result of an attack. Cops said a 37-year-old man awoke to find his residence on fire and made his way from the second floor to the street. A second man was helped from the roof of the building by a neighbour with a ladder, police said.
Witnesses in the neighbourhood said a second man with burns made his way to Memorial Park.
The incident occurred in a sprawling brick house that neighbours said is a legal duplex, but has been used as a flop house by numerous people. Noisy parties, suspected drug use and violence were evident from time to time, neighbours said.
"There would be 15 people sleeping there at a time," one man said. "I stayed away from those people."
A local woman said residents have complained to police and politicians about the property.
"The police have been phoned about that place all the time," she said.
Witnesses said people at the house began partying Friday afternoon and that at 3:30 a.m. the next day the party was still going on, with loud music emanating from the house.
Police and firefighters arrived to find the upper floors of the house ablaze. Police and a representative of the Ontario Fire Marshal's office were on scene Monday morning.
The man who sustained burns was rushed to a local hospital and then transferred to a Toronto area hospital where he was listed Monday in serious but stable condition, police said. The man was found standing at the front residence of a rooming house on the southwest corner of Celina and John that was the scene of a fatal shooting linked to a robbery in December 2004.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 905-579-1520, ext. 2766 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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