Phone calls to the Providence Police reveal a tenant predicted a fire would erupt at 110 Bowdoin St. five days before the house burst into flames and left one woman dead, the Target 12 investigators have learned.
The frantic phone call from tenant Roland Colpitts was made on New Year’s Day, as freezing temperatures forced residents to use space heaters and hot plates because there was no working heat in the building. In the 911 recording, Colpitts tells the dispatcher extension cords were running throughout the building and the electrical panel continued to trip, which was shutting off his wife’s oxygen machine.
“It’s illegal to have those cords running down the stairs like that – he’s going to kill somebody, it’s going to cause a fire,” Colpitts tells the dispatcher.