Man arrested over fatal fire at St Kilda home

Homicide detectives have made an arrest over the death of a 60-year-old man in a fire at a home on Chapel St in St Kilda

Homicide squad detectives have arrested a man following a fatal house fire on Chapel St in St Kilda on Wednesday night.

Emergency services responded to reports of a blaze on busy Chapel St about 8.40pm and fire crews arrived to find the first floor alight.

Inside they found a critically injured 60-year-old St Kilda man.

He received emergency treatment but died at the scene.

Members from the homicide squad executed a warrant at a St Kilda home on Thursday where they took a 30-year-old man into custody.

He is expected to be interviewed but has not been charged.

The Chapel St property is located next door to the St Kilda Police Station and shares a fence with the station’s car park.

The building on Thursday morning was cordoned off by police tape as detectives probed the man’s death.

Detectives in the lane behind the property. Picture: David Crosling

Elisa Rothschild has owned a law practice operating out of the Chapel St property since 2019 and said she was shocked to hear about the fire.

“Last night my sister called me and said there’s a fire in your building and I was so shocked I said ‘what about my office?’,” Ms Rothschild said.

She said the news of the death was “a bit of a jolt” and “quite scary”.

“It’s just a horrible thing to happen,” she said.

Ms Rothschild’s office sits at the front of the building with an apartment above and behind.

She said she was not surprised to hear about the fire as squatters had been an ongoing issue at the property.

Police outside the home in Chapel St. Picture: David Crosling

She said the landlord of the building had tried to get the squatters removed.

“I have seen the sort of activity that goes on there. I’m certainly not surprised,” she added.

“They (the squatters) have been very, very loud … and they’re always wandering up and down past my window … like very strange people, grungy people.

“I would go to the area and I would smell cigarette smoke — like in abundance.”

Jacques Tremblay lives above the unit where the fire started, though he was unaware of the blaze until firefighters told him to evacuate his apartment.

Mr Tremblay was saddened by the tragic death, having witnessed the events unfold in front of him.

Forensic investigators at the scene. Picture: David Crosling

Fed up with the squatters on the property he said “it was bound something (like this) was going to happen”.

“We were not aware of anything … then when we were on the footpath we noticed there was black smoke coming out from the back of the property,” he said.

“When we were on the footpath we saw the fireman coming out with the bag and the body - it’s horrible.”

After living in his Chapel St home for 35 years, Mr Tremblay is moving back to Canada frustrated by the rising crime rate in St Kilda.

“St Kilda over the last few years has become worse than it was when I moved in. St Kilda is not what it used to be”.

Originally published as Man arrested over fatal fire at St Kilda home