VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, FIREFIGHTERS WERE CALLED OUT Monday night to a fire in a “heritage home” mansion that was built 98 years ago in a wealthy neighborhood. The fire was seated in the basement, but was spreading through the large home and the response was escalated eventually to three alarms. Vancouver FD officials say that it is “rare” for a house fire to extend to 3 alarms.
The Province
The fire officers on the scene were immediately suspicious of the blaze because there were more than one fires ongoing in the house. After the fire was extinguished, the FF’s began overhauling in the basement and came across a charred body of what appeared to be an adult male. It won’t be known how the man died until the autopsy is completed later this week, so it is also unknown if he was a murder victim or the fire setter who became a victim of circumstance.
But the mystery only deepened when the investigators started delving into the ownership records that led them to discover:
- The owner is a woman, Gail Hewitt who bought the house in 2007 for $1.56 million, but did not live in it.
- It was heavily mortgaged and the 3rd mortgage is held by a local character named Robert Luigi Poloni.
- Hewitt was in default on the mortgage owing nearly $615,000 with interest debt accumulating at the rate of $245 a day.
- Poloni intiated foreclosure proceedings in November of 2008.
- The final order of foreclosure was granted on October 2 of this year.
- On October 3 Poloni listed the house for sale for $2.5 million.
- Poloni and an associate, Robert Della Penna, a former boxer, were both charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence relating to a 2004 undercover cocaine-trafficking investigation, but the charges were later stayed.
- During the foreclosure hearings, Hewitt told the court that had threatened her and also threatened to burn the house down.
- Hewitt has recently lost two other properties in Vancouver to foreclosure.
- Poloni’s lawyer, Andrew Bury says that Poloni is “vacationing in Thailand for weeks and recovering from surgery.”
Nobody yet has any idea who the body in the basement is.
Global News has this video report (click on box to play):
The Province tries to sort it out HERE.
The Globe & Mail has more on the fire HERE.
Also on FireGeezer…
- Arsonist Sentenced Ten Years Later – October 17, 2011
- Washougal Standoff Update #2 – December 13, 2011
- Updated: FF’s Targeted by Arsonist in Vegas – November 13, 2011
- Marriage Plans Put on Hold? – April 10, 2011
