CBC News

by Dan Taekema, Reporter

All that remains is a vacant lot in Kingston, Ont., where an abandoned swing set sits rusting in the rain.

A fire tore through 895 Montreal St. on March 30, 2023. Two people were inside the building when it burned: 35-year-old Bonnie Demille and her boyfriend Adam Crowley, 34.

Crowley died the night of the fire, Demille in hospital two days later.

Standing on the barren plot where her sister once lived, Melissa Demille said the loss has devastated their family. Questions about that night haunt them still.

"It shouldn't have been like this," she said during a visit in November. "It shouldn't have happened."

No criminal charges

On April 5, Kingston Police announced the fire was not criminal in nature. 

However, Prithvipal (Paul) Dadiala, the owner of the property, has since been charged with nine provincial offences related to the state of 895 Montreal St.

Internal emails and reports obtained by CBC through freedom of information requests show the blaze led to a blitz of inspections that found dozens of building and fire code violations at other homes belonging to Dadiala and his family.

The records reveal how limited housing options coupled with Kingston's complaint-based approach to enforcing property and safety standards can leave the city's vulnerable residents at risk.

And while local officials maintain the move to inspect all Dadiala's properties was proactive, it comes too late for the Demilles.

"Something definitely should have been done before it got to this," Melissa Demille said. "In my eyes, the city is just as bad as the landlord for allowing it to continue to happen."

Nothing suspicious about fire, police say

Const. Ash Gutheinz told CBC police, the coroner and the fire marshal agreed there was nothing suspicious about the fire, nor was there evidence to suggest "negligence on behalf of any person, including the owner, caused the fire to start."

Among the provincial offences Dadiala faces in relation to 895 Montreal St. are two charges for failing to provide portable fire extinguishers, and one count each for failing to ensure smoke alarms were installed in all sleeping rooms or that a carbon monoxide detector was nearby.

He was also charged with failing to ensure the floor, first-storey hallway, doors and exit stairway had the necessary fire separations and fire resistance ratings, and that the exit door be self-closing.

Several of these charges were echoed in the findings of the inspectors who probed his family's other Kingston properties in the weeks following the fire.

Documents show inspectors say they found both 232 Weller Ave. and 98 Joyce St. had rooms where required fire resistance and separation weren't in place. A report for 250 Weller Ave. mentions a self-closing door was missing there, too.

There were also repeated references to allegations of sites where more people were living than allowed.

It's not clear how many people were at 895 Montreal St. when the fire broke out. One woman CBC spoke with in the days after said she had been staying there with six or seven people, including Demille and Crowley.

In an email sent the evening after the deadly fire, Ted Posadowski, Kingston's chief fire prevention officer, asked how many units were allowed there. 

He wrote to Kingston's director of building services saying the house was supposed to be a single dwelling, but two separate dwellings had been observed. The official confirmed only one dwelling had been permitted at the address.

Similar issues were uncovered during a fire inspection at 109 Morenz Cres., where a single family dwelling appeared to have been converted to a three-unit apartment. A bylaw inspection at 382 Barrie St. found that address was being "occupied as a boarding, lodging and rooming house" despite that not being permitted.

Inspectors probe another fire nearby

Inspectors reported finding the same issue at another property a short walk from the scene of the fatal fire, 780 Montreal St.

Kingston Fire & Rescue staff visited the home on May 2, 2023, according to a copy of an order included in the records reviewed by CBC. The inspector noted "sleeping accommodations" found in a small attic space that could only be reached through stairs and a trap door above the second floor.

"In case of emergency, this set of stairs … is the only means by which persons may leave," it reads.

The Dadialas were ordered to stop whoever was staying in the attic from sleeping there and to install smoke alarms on all floors until they'd done so. Just over a month later, 780 Montreal St. caught fire, injuring a woman and her two children in another unit of the building.

The next day, city officials were back. Along with documenting fire damage, a bylaw inspector noted the property was still being operated as a boarding house. 

Their report specifically mentioned the attic space had been converted to a "sleeping room" — the same contravention found by fire officials a month before.

The City of Kingston issued a media release the same day mentioning the fire at 780 Montreal St. The city said following the fire that killed Demille and Crowley, it had taken "specific and proactive measures," inspecting dozens of properties deemed "high-risk." 

It did not indicate the homes were linked to the Dadiala family.

Dozens of properties

Figuring out just how many residential properties the family owns wasn't straightforward, according to the documents obtained by CBC.

The question came up in response to an email where Dadiala asked for an explanation for the city's inspections.

That message was sent to Kingston's Chief Fire Prevention Officer, Ted Posadowski, on May 3, saying while the family has been "very cooperative and accommodating," they haven't been told what the city is looking for.

"We are seeking legal advice regarding the inspection of our home and the inspection of our [family's] properties," it reads.

Posadowski responded saying the inspections followed the fatalities at 895 Montreal St.

He added that after the fire, Dadiala provided the fire department with a list of 27 properties he owns, along with two owned by other members of his family.

However, Posadowski wrote that "it has come to our attention there were additional properties that are owned by your family that were not disclosed."

A document provided as part of the city's response to one of CBC's freedom of information requests listed 37 Dadiala properties as of June, including 895 Montreal St.

Dadiala did not respond to repeated requests seeking comment for this story, including a registered letter outlining detailed questions about the fire, inspections and properties his family owns. The letter was sent to his home address and signed for by someone with the initials P.D.

'I go through hell every day'

Bonnie Demille was the middle child of three sisters. Melissa, the youngest, said her family rushed to Kingston on the night of the fire.

When they arrived at the hospital a social worker took them aside and warned they wouldn't recognize Bonnie.

Melissa said she identified her sister by the stars tattooed behind one of her ears.

Alma Clark, Bonnie's mother, said she can't escape that night.

"I couldn't believe what I'd seen. It was like it was not my daughter," she said.

Clark remembers her child as a free spirit who loved life, holidays and especially her nieces and nephews.

"I go through hell every day," she said. "I have to keep busy or else I just lose it. I just sit and cry."

Melissa Demille said Bonnie had moved from house to house a lot in the years before the fatal fire at 895 Montreal St., and she believes her sister may not have felt comfortable raising safety concerns.

Complaint-based system

Internal communications following the fire reveal one of the challenges for the city was responding to issues in the absence of complaints.

On April 3, Kingscourt-Rideau Coun. Brandon Tozzo emailed Lanie Hurdle, Kingston's chief administrative officer, to follow up on a constituent concern.

"Apparently the landlord Paul Dadiala is known to provide substandard living conditions to people on [Ontario Works]," wrote Tozzo, who asked if there was a way to ensure the landlord's other properties were up to code.

Hurdle responded saying Dadiala and his family own multiple properties and the city has a "fairly significant history with him."

She followed up moments later with an email detailing some of that history, noting that Kingston had 46 property standards and building code violations and 31 orders under the Ontario Building Code open for his properties at the time.

"One of the issues/challenges that we have is that we can only enter properties based on complaints and many people are not filing complaints," Hurdle wrote to the councillor.

Tenants are 'highly vulnerable'

For housing advocate Chyrstal Wilson, the idea that someone wouldn't raise concerns about conditions, including those who live at Dadiala properties, comes as no surprise. 

Speaking generally, she said tenants are often loath to speak up or complain. 

Wilson described people who end up in the properties as "highly vulnerable," including those with little income or who are struggling with mental health concerns.

"We will not house people in substandard housing," Wilson said during a city council meeting on Nov. 7,  before mentioning other problem properties and another landlord. "You guys all know why."

In a recent interview, Wilson expanded on that statement, saying she's been inside a number of Dadiala homes while trying to help tenants with property standard issues.

Along with the orders from the fire department, the documents obtained by CBC include more than a dozen notices of violation issued for Dadiala properties following bylaw inspections that found everything from a toilet seat in disrepair to windows and doors that didn't lock, missing floorboards and holes in the walls.

Meanwhile, the lack of supportive and affordable housing in Kingston means many residents have to choose between "slummy housing, slummy housing and slummy housing." Wilson said.

"It's not a choice at all."

Wilson said it shouldn't have taken two deaths for the city to inspect the properties.

"He's notorious in this city. Councillors know who he is, bylaw officers know who he is, why weren't they being more proactive before all of this?" she asked.

"My suspicion is that his housing is filling a need where social housing and supportive housing should be filling that need."

Violations spotted on night of fire: city

The City of Kingston declined interviews about Dadiala's properties and the fatal fire, citing the provincial charges currently before the court.

However, its legal team did provide written responses to questions sent by email.

They state Kingston's past contact with Dadiala was primarily around property standards violations and Ontario Building Code cases, adding the city did not have a "significant" contact with the landlord related to fire safety before the deadly fire at the end of March.

"Several Fire Code violations" were observed by firefighters that night, and an inspection at a second Dadiala property revealed similar issues. That led then acting fire chief Brad Joyce to check all the family's properties, the city said.

Inspection orders were issued for 13 Dadiala properties, fire officials confirmed by email, adding they've either been closed since or the landlord is in the process of making corrections.

No fire code violations were found at 19 of the family's sites, according to a list created in September by Posadowski, the fire prevention officer.

Asked about resident complaints, the city said generally when serious concerns are identified, staff work with landlords to "immediately resolve the issues so that no tenants are displaced."

Its statement added the city will continue to proactively monitor and inspect "all high-risk properties in the City, including the Dadiala properties."

'I'd just like to have something'

When Bonnie Demille's family first saw the burned-out shell of 895 Montreal St. in the days after the fire, her sisters wouldn't let their mother cross the road, scared about what the scene would do to her.

Now Clark says she's desperate for some piece of her daughter to hold onto.

Walking around the site this past November, Clark spotted what she thought might have been Bonnie's scarf. It was crammed into a trailer left at the lot, stacked high with broken bits of the home and the lives of those who stayed there.

Her daughter Bonnie had worn it during a family dinner the Christmas before, a happy memory, but when Melissa looked at it she had to tell her mother it was only a bit of blanket with a similar pattern.

Clark said she put together a baby book full of mementos when Bonnie was born. Now she's trying to assemble a similar volume to share the story of her death.

"I'd just like to have something," she said, with tears in her eyes. "I just want some closure on what happened so I can put myself at ease and then put Bonnie to rest."

The Demille family is desperate for answers, anything to help fill the hole left by Bonnie's death and explain why she's gone.

"I don't want anybody else to have to feel the loss of knowing that you don't ever get to see somebody again. You don't ever get to tell them you love them," Melissa Demille said. "It's not fair."