Fire guts downtown Charlottetown buildings

A major fire burned through a row of downtown buildings in Charlottetown on Friday morning at the corner of Kent and Prince streets.

It began at about 2 a.m. in a block of older buildingsthat includes Tombstone Tattoos, Tribal Art and Decor, City Cab and a hair salon. Firefighters were still on the scene at 7 a.m., dousing hot spots.

Fire inspector Randy MacDonald said early indications are the fire started in Tombstone Tattoos.

"The first thing when we arrived, there was heavy smoke coming out of the tattoo shop," MacDonald said.

'Without a dog we could die in there.' Nguyen Thanh

No one was injured in the fire, but some people who lived over the shops had to flee into 20 Ctemperatures without even a chance to put a coat on.

Nguyen Thanh, owner of Princess Nails, a neighbouring shop, told CBC News he was awakened by his dog.

"When my dog woke me up, then I saw a lot of smoke and the house was very dark," Nguyen said.

He said he turned on a light, but still couldn't see and started yelling for his wife and nephew to get out of the house. Once they were out, he returned to try to rescue the dog, which he credited with saving their lives.

"Without a dog, we could die in there," Nguyen said. The dog died in the fire.

Tombstone Tattoos is the former Route 81 store, a front for the Hells Angels biker gang that was closed by police as part of a series of raids in May 2006.

Police had returned to the building to make an arrest last weekend. A squad of RCMP and Charlottetown police officers arrested Donald Gregg Gautreau there on Saturday. He's accused of threatening to kill a Charlottetown woman last week, as well as kicking in the back door to her home.

Charlottetown deputy chief Richard Collins said police showed up in force to arrest Gautreau, who was living at the tattoo parlour, because they were worried there could be violence.

"Anytime we have someone who appears to either by way of intelligence or by way of previous court experience or history shows a propensity to be violent towards police, to assault police, that is when we take extra measures to ensure officer safety," said Collins.

Gautreau was arrested without incident. The 37-year-old is also charged with possession of about 30 grams of marijuana. He was released from custody on Tuesday after promising not to contact the alleged victim or her daughter.

Gautreau will be back in court on March 29 to enter pleas to the charges.