Upset over drug use on property, owner torches trailer home
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Authorities say an Ohio property owner admitted setting his vacant trailer home on fire because he’s tired of renting it to people addicted to drugs.
The Chillicothe Gazette reports Ross County sheriff’s deputies arrived at property owned by 41-year-old Robert Violette last week and found him trying to extinguish a fire in one of his trailers with a garden hose.
An incident report says Violette told deputies he wanted to torch all the trailers on his property because of tenants who were misusing drugs.
A township fire department put out the blaze and issued Violette a warning.
Violette didn’t return the newspaper’s calls for comment.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine filed a lawsuit in Ross County in May against five drugmakers, accusing them of helping create the region’s opioid epidemic.