CALGARY – Calgary Police have charged one man with arson in connection to a massive blaze in the city’s northeast Wednesday evening.
The fire broke out at a housing complex in the community of Highland Park around 7:30 p.m. The flames spread quickly, prompting fire crews to call in a second alarm.
Tenants had only a few seconds to get out of the home.
“I looked at their upstairs window in their kitchen and it was shooting out the window,” says the bottom floor tenant, Kaila Ladd.
Neighbours say a couple had been arguing before the fire and that’s when police were called. Officers arrived, smelled smoke and warned everyone to get outside.
“This man and this woman were having an argument,” says one neighbour. “He was throwing some stuff out of the apartment.”
Ladd and her mother, who have lived in the basement for the past 10 years, confirmed the couple on the main floor had been fighting and arguing for several hours. They said belongings, electronics and furniture had been tossed onto the front lawn.
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“I heard a loud bang, then the smell of smoke and the next thing you know police are banging on the door telling us to get the hell out.”
Some residents of the triplex have told investigators that a male tenant in the building had told them minutes before the fire began that he was going to set the house ablaze.
“He came out and threatened me that I was next and said he was going to set the house on fire,” said Alma Leyva, 24, who lived on the top floor of the building.
“Fifteen minutes later, I looked out and saw smoke and building was on fire.”
Leyva, who lived in the upper suite with her partner, Luisa Horton, said she had called police on the couple about six weeks ago because she was afraid and became frustrated with he was allowed to continue living in the building.
Leyva had been writing an e-mail to the landlord of the building to complain about the couple shortly after the man had threatened to set the building on fire.
Police have confirmed they arrived at the residence just moments before the blaze for a check on welfare call and that earlier in the day officers had attended the same building in the 3900 block of 1st Street N.E. for a domestic complaint, says duty inspector Mike Tillotson.
41-year-old Edward Allan Tallmadge was arrested at the scene and has since been charged with four counts of arson endangering life and one count of arson. Tallmadge remains in custody.
No one was injured but the four other tenants of the gutted northeast triplex as well as Tallmadge and his girlfriend are now homeless.
Investigators say the blaze began in the second floor unit. Damages are estimated at around $800,000. The building will have to be demolished.
With files from the Calgary Herald
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