Rooming house landlord sentenced to 3 years after tenant died in fire

Alyshah Hasham

An Etobicoke landlord who cut costs on rooming house fire safety measures was found guilty of criminal negligence causing death after a tenant died in a fire and sentenced to three years in prison Friday morning.

Jasvir Singh declined to make a statement before Superior Court Justice Bonnie Croll made her ruling.

In her verdict delivered in August, Croll found Singh “concluded the retrofit (for a rooming house) was too costly so he decided not to comply.”

His decision cost a man his life, she said.

After a 2010 fire inspection found at least nine people living in the house at 73 Humber College Blvd. with no working smoke alarm, Singh was ordered to make changes to the house in order to safely rent rooms to individual tenants. The changes included an interconnected smoke alarm system with a smoke detector in each bedroom and fire-resistant doors.

The landlord instead passed the fire inspection by claiming he was renting the two-storey detached house near Humber College to a single family, with a separate basement unit, Insp. Karen Borne testified.

Single family dwellings have fewer, and therefore less costly, fire safety requirements because families are more concerned with each other’s safety in the event of a fire than individual tenants, the court heard.

Croll ruled that despite knowing the risks, Singh continued to operate a rooming house, renting to three individuals who hardly knew each other.

She also found that after the fatal fire on March 6, 2011, Singh fabricated a document to attempt to prove the tenants were a family.

The fire was caused by the hot plate belonging to one of the tenants, Karnail Singh Dhaliwal, catching fire while he was passed out drunk.

Dhaliwal died of smoke inhalation and his friend staying in his room, Harbir Bhinder, suffered severe burns and was hospitalized for four days.

For unknown reasons, no smoke alarm went off that night to warn the other two tenants, students attending nearby Humber College, but they managed to escape safely, as did the couple who lived in the basement apartment.

Singh showed a “wanton and reckless disregard” for the safety of the tenants, Croll ruled in August, also finding Singh guilty of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and endangering the safety of the tenants.

Source: thestar