Inner West blaze kills three

A ‘maliciously lit fire’ in Newtown exposes the difficulties of regulating boarding houses. Rebecca Benson reports.

Three people died in a fire at a boarding house in Newtown in Sydney’s Inner West. A man was subsequently charged with three counts of murder after he allegedly doused Vajda House — at the corner of Probert and Albemarle streets — with an accelerant and ignited the fire at about 1am on Tuesday 15 March. Assistant commissioner Peter Cotter said: “We are treating this as a murder. We are treating this as a maliciously lit fire.”

Richard Hotoran was arrested later that day at Surry Hills police station following an investigation. The 45-yearold — a Newtown local — was questioned and then charged with three murders and one count of destroying property by fire or explosion.

The case was brought before Central Local Court on Wednesday 16 March. No application for bail was made. Court documents allege Hotoran "did murder person unknown believed to be Pankaj Kumar" and two others "unidentified". Hotoran is due back in court on 12 May.

A witness told officers she saw a man running shirtless from Vajda House shortly before an explosion ignited the inferno. Investigators seized a fuel canister hidden under a car near the property.

Craig Hopper was one of the residents who managed to escape the fire. He recalled running from his firstfloor room after he was woken by a “massive bang”. “I’ve never experienced a bomb going off, but bloody hell. It was bloody smoky, it was dense. I had to hold my breath and scooch down the stairs. I ran like a bejesus.”

Hopper told reporters he saw a man lying on the ground with his pants on fire, while another man, whose room was on the ground floor, was “blown through the window” by the explosion.

The explosion also woke neighbour Dianne Gallagher who ran outside to investigate the noise. “I woke up to the bang, it was like something dropping,” she said. “It was just massive flames.” The fire quickly engulfed the two-level building. Neighbouring properties had to be evacuated at the peak of the blaze.

Eight residents fled the intense fire with some treated at the scene by paramedics. Three of them were taken to hospital, including an 80-year-old man known as Ronnie — who jumped from the first floor to escape the inferno. Unable to walk and covered in blood, locals carried him to safety until an ambulance arrived.

Ronnie was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital, where he arrived in a critical condition after suffering a heart attack. According to friend Bernie Godzik, Ronnie is a much-loved member of the community. “People will be angry about this. For this to happen to an 80-year-old, it’s not right,” he said. Responding to the news of the fire, head of Vinnies NSW Jack de Groot said the boarding house was “a place of last resort”. “Someone living in a boarding house is experiencing a form of homelessness,” he said. “As a community we need to do more to protect our most vulnerable.”

Police confirmed Hotoran had been a former resident of Vajda House. Described as “cramped, crowded” and “dilapidated”, residents had previously complained to the building’s owner about the poor living conditions at the boarding house.

Former caretaker Ian Mineall, who recently visited the property, told reporters that a kitchen ceiling had caved in exposing electrical wires. “Plenty of people have been complaining about [the property],” he said. “Mostly about cockroaches and other little problems, and particularly that when it rained the roof leaked, and parts of the roof were falling in.”

Newtown Neighbourhood Centre chief executive Liz Yeo confirmed numerous complaints had been made about the property. Yeo said the tragedy highlighted the difficulties in regulating boarding houses. “You’ve got these split responsibilities between [state government agency] NSW Fair Trading and councils, and councils are not adequately resourced to be able to properly regulate these places,” she said. “There’s a place for this form of housing, but it must be safe and adequately regulated.”