Resident charged with arson for explosion at Calgary townhomes: police

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A resident of the townhouse complex that was rocked by an explosion and fire over the weekend has been charged with arson, Calgary police said Tuesday.

Several families, facing uncertainty after their homes were left uninhabitable, reacted with shock and anger Tuesday night upon learning their neighbour had been charged for allegedly intentionally setting the fire.

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Late Saturday night, the explosion, which came from inside one of the townhomes, could be heard from several blocks away, according to some Monterey Park residents. Six people were injured during the incident and taken to hospital.

Following an investigation by Calgary Fire Department and Calgary Police Service arson investigators, they determined the fire was likely intentionally set.

“It is believed the man intentionally set a fire within his home using an accelerant, causing the explosion and subsequent fire,” read a news release from police late Tuesday afternoon.

Gavin Peter Robinson, 40, has been charged with arson and disregard for human life.

Robinson will appear in court on Wednesday. Police say they anticipate further charges.

Residents react with shock, anger

Residents of the townhouse complex were unsettled and shocked to learn of the charges Tuesday evening. Several of them first learned the news when Postmedia reached out for comment.

“He knew there were families in there, and I really hope they press for more charges. That was a lot of people he could have killed,” said Owen Defoe, one of the apartment residents who’d lost his home in the explosion. He, his wife, Ashley, and two children are now staying with his parents.

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Defoe said he knew of Robinson but the two did not have a personal relationship and had rarely spoken. He now questions whether Robinson experienced some form of mental illness — though he does not hold sympathy for his neighbour under the circumstances, should the allegations be proven in court.

“It’s the lack of respect and care for the people that were living in this unit. He knew that there were multiple families, young kids … he had every opportunity to stop what he was doing,” Defoe said.

Helen Pena, whose aunt and uncle were two of the six people taken to the hospital after the explosion, said she similarly didn’t know Robinson well. The entire sequence of events has been “something we couldn’t even imagine,” she said.

“Our first reaction to hearing this was absolute shock. It’s disheartening, really, to think that the gentleman felt that there was no way out of this and thought this was his only solution,” Pena said in a Tuesday evening phone interview.

Pena described the past few days as a “roller-coaster of emotions” for the family. Her uncle’s stepson, Lenin Pastran, is also still in hospital with severe burns.

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“We’re all thankful that they’re still alive, but it’s hard to be relying on everyone else to help,” Pena said. “That uncertainty kind of has them really down.

“They don’t know how they’re going to come out of this,” she said.

What began as a normal evening as they prepared for bed ended in the family scrambling to escape a house already engulfed in flames.

Based on her aunt’s account, Pena says the explosion came out of nowhere.

“There (were) no signs of something like this going to happen and, of course, they’ve been in shock ever since,” she said.

Pena set up a fundraiser to help support the family while uncertainty remains about when, or if, the townhomes will be rebuilt.

Mirella Bautista said her uncle, who lost his home in the explosion, felt something was amiss about the incident before the police laid charges on Tuesday.

“I think they were feeling off, but we never imagined that it would be intentional from someone they’ve been living next to all this time,” Bautista said. 

“They can’t believe someone would play with their lives like that.”

Residents had speculated fire wasn’t from gas leak

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Three of the townhomes were destroyed, while a fourth has been deemed uninhabitable.

One of the homes was vacant during the incident, according to multiple residents, as the young family occupying it was away on vacation. A GoFundMe was started for them, as they, too, “lost everything,” the page says.

Defoe and his family are among those who lost everything when they fled their charred unit following the explosion.

On Monday, while visiting what remained of their home, Defoe said: “It’s like a war zone, almost, right? I’m still trying to come to grips with it.”

Like the other victims of the blaze, Defoe had no clue what caused the explosion.

Residents had previously said a couple lived in the house at the source of the explosion, and were taken to hospital following the incident.

“We had initially thought it was a gas leak, but from what the firefighters and the investigators are saying, they’re kind of speculating that it wasn’t,” Pena said earlier in the day.

— With files from Gavin Young

swilhelm@postmedia.com
mscace@postmedia.com

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