Tenant faces drug charges after London home explosion
Jennifer Bieman, The London Free Press
The man charged after an explosion at
a London home left three people without a place to live was his tenant, the now-displaced landlord says.
Homeowner Ed McCleave said the 35-year-old suspect facing drug and arson charges had been his renter for about a year and a half.
Emergency responders were called to the single-storey home at 1335 Hamilton Rd., east of Highbury Avenue, shortly before 4 p.m. last Monday.
One person, identified by McCleave as the tenant facing charges, was taken to hospital with injuries.
Two other people emerged unharmed.
News of the explosion had been a surprise to McCleave, who was vacationing in Mexico at the time when a friend alerted him.
“My brain is just fried. For a week and a half, I’ve just been trying to figure out what’s going on,” McCleave said Wednesday.
“It is friggin’ awful.”
The Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal was called in to investigate. The provincial agency probes Ontario’s most serious blazes, including arsons, explosions, fires that involve suspected criminal activity such as drug labs and blazes that cause death or serious injury.
McCleave’s home of 25 years, which he shared with three tenants, sustained significant structural damage to the front and west side – damage so bad he’s unable to immediately return to his home.
“I went in and grabbed a couple things. I needed my work boots, otherwise I’d be walking around in summer shoes,” he said, adding a wall was knocked down in the home he’s worked hard to upgrade.
“The hydro, water, the gas is all shut off.”
McCleave said he’d been sleeping on the floor of his mother’s Stratford apartment since returning from vacation last Friday. He said he’s meeting with his insurance company this Friday and is now staying with a friend in London.
The only silver lining, McCleave said, is that a dog presumed dead in the explosion was found alive.
The six-month-old bulldog McCleave nicknamed Monkey Puppy returned home Sunday.
“The security guard out front saw him trying to get into my house,” said McCleave.
“I was so happy, I cried . . . I lost my old dog a year ago.”
Police say their investigation continues and ask anyone with information to call 519 661-5670 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
Nathan Thomas of London is charged with possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking and producing a Schedule II substance – a federal classification that refers to cannabis and its derivatives.
Thomas is also charged with arson or explosion causing property damage and three counts of causing an arson or explosion with a disregard for human life.
He’s to appear in court on Jan. 19.
