Last month, a suspicious fire broke out at 159 John St. in Greater Napanee, Ont., and killed 67-year-old Walter Lasher. Sources say he was one of 14 tenants living there. (Emma Weller/CBC)
With three upstairs windows blown out, a once beautiful neo-Victorian home in Greater Napanee, Ont., now stands charred and empty as a reminder of a deadly tragedy that several neighbours called “inevitable” due to the chaos inside.
Last month, 67-year-old Walter Lasher died in a suspicious fire at the multi-unit building.
He was one of many tenants who once called the house on John Street home — and not the first to struggle with poverty and housing insecurity, with a friend telling CBC it was the only place he could afford.
Following his death, Andrew James Thompson, a 31-year-old man from Picton, Ont., was charged with first-degree murder, criminal harassment and multiple counts of arson.
The charges might seem extraordinary for people living in nearby Greater Napanee, an eastern Ontario town of around 16,000 people.
But those who lived near the John Street home were less shocked.
“The house was a dump,” said one person familiar with the property who knew both the victim and the suspect. “It was terrible in there.”
CBC has agreed not to identify the person due to concerns over their safety. A dozen other neighbours and community members also spoke to CBC about Lasher and the living conditions of the destroyed home.
It was just like a drug house — needles, everything – Confidential source
The property, which was built around 1988 one block from the downtown core, was a rooming house that had several subsidized, transitional units offered through the Prince Edward-Lennox and Addington Social Services (PELASS).
Around 14 people lived in the house altogether, according to multiple people.
“It was just like a drug house — needles, everything,” said the one confidential source.
Drugs would be lying around the house in the open, they said. Sometimes, people overdosed.
“Walter feared [for] his life all the time,” they said, noting that people in the house would also fight using knives, shovels and baseball bats.
One neighbour recalled seeing paramedics, firefighters and police visiting the house on a regular basis — sometimes more than once a day.
“Who approved that living condition? That’s what I’d really like to know,” said Karen Donaldson, who lives a few doors down.
The Greater Napanee Fire Department said crews were dispatched to the address 10 times this year prior to the deadly August fire.
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said it could not provide exact information about the frequency of police responses to the home. The local paramedic service said for privacy reasons, it was also unable to release any information on the frequency of responses.
A memorial for 67-year-old Walter Lasher of Greater Napanee, Ont., lies on the front lawn of where he lived. (Emma Weller/CBC)
In an email, landlord Matt Raham said the unsavoury descriptions of his property, including some of the alleged activities inside, were “untrue.”
Whatever picture tenants and neighbours painted about the living conditions was incomplete, Raham said.
He initially agreed to an interview, but later declined and did not respond to a followup email.
Little known about suspect
Less than a week after the Aug. 3 fire, police arrested Thompson and charged him with six criminal offences, four of which were related to arson.
Little is known about Thompson, who had not retained legal counsel at the time of his arraignment and — according to local publication The Kingstonist — refused to leave his jail cell to show up for his first court appearance.
Police say he is from Picton, but a handful of individuals who knew him said he was living in Napanee at the time of his arrest.
Based on his last known court record, Thompson was still awaiting legal representation.
According to court documents, he allegedly had an altercation with another tenant in the building and caused damage by fire to the woman’s bedroom, the exterior of the house and garage.
None of the allegations against Thompson has been proven in court.
A bystander who watched flames engulf the top of the house said the woman made it out, along with everyone else inside except Lasher.
The house’s upstairs, street-facing rooms — where Lasher’s bedroom was — sustained the greatest damage. They’ve been left with no window panes and the walls are covered in soot.
It’s unclear how Lasher died in the fire.
Krista-Lynn Pixley, who lives nearby, stood outside 159 John St. while the landlord was emptying debris from the fire at the house. (Emma Weller/CBC)
Questions about safety of vulnerable people
In the aftermath of Lasher’s death, some in the community, including social workers, are raising questions about the safety of vulnerable people in the mostly rural county.
Addiction, homelessness and mental health all contributed to the tragedy, neighbours believe.
“You can’t just solve the problem by stuffing them in one big house thinking they’re gonna keep them off the streets,” said Donaldson. “That’s not solving anything.”
Krista-Lynn Pixley, 39, who had been friends with Lasher nearly all her life, called the living arrangement a “nightmare.”
“It’s been scary,” she said, adding she’d equipped her nearby home with naloxone, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, just in case.
Since the fire, the house has been unlivable, forcing tenants to find housing elsewhere. Landlord Matt Raham said he welcomed tenants back inside to gather any items that were salvageable once he got the greenlight from the authorities. (Emma Weller/CBC)
“Because they’re walking by, they’re fighting at night, there’s police, there’s ambulances, there’s fire trucks here all the time, overdoses, people assaulting each other, stealing from each other,” she said.
Lynn Chenier, director of PELASS, which provides a variety of social services in the county, said she’s seen an increase in homelessness and drug use in Greater Napanee in recent years.
Chenier pointed to lack of affordable housing options as one main reason.
“Unfortunately though, even if somebody has met all of their addiction stuff [and] they’ve got mental health issues under control, where do they go?” Chenier said.
In Greater Napanee, the average price for a one-bedroom unit is $1,463, according to data collected from the Rural Housing Information System, a tool used by rural municipalities and builders to gauge housing needs.
PELASS offers 34 transitional housing units in the Greater Napanee area, Chenier said, to help subsidize costs for those in need. She noted several units are rented through private landlords, as was the case on John Street.
Social services staff do not live on site of the transitional units, but they check in with tenants daily, Chenier said — including those who lived in the same house as Lasher.
“[Tenants] are able to be removed from that unit if their behaviours are causing too much disruption and they’re not following along with the agreement,” Chenier said.
Chenier said her team is now working with clients who may have been affected by the fire to help find them other housing.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction and mental health in that region, here’s where to get help: