Police say father set the fire that killed him and his daughter
City police say a Calgary father is responsible for a house fire on Saturday that killed him and left one daughter dead and another with “life-altering” injuries.
A “violent confrontation” led to the incident at the family home in the northwest community of Kincora, Staff Sgt. Martin Schiavetta of the Calgary police homicide unit said Tuesday.
The blaze killed Dorsa Dehdari, a 22-year-old University of Calgary student, along with her father, Heidar Dehdari, 56. Dorsa’s 16-yearold sister, Dorna, who was found outside the home with critical injuries, was taken to hospital in life-threatening condition.
Police were called to the scene in the 0-100 block of Kincora Drive N.W. around 2 p.m. Saturday. Schiavetta said police are now investigating the incident as a “domestic-related” homicide and attempted murder.
Evidence at the scene suggests the fire was set intentionally inside the home and was a “contributing cause” of the two deaths, however police haven’t determined a motive.
“We believe that (Heidar Dehdari) is culpable in this case for causing the deaths of another person as well as the attempted murder,” said Schiavetta, adding it’s unclear if the father meant to cause his own death.
Police are not seeking any other suspects.
Just two hours before she was killed, Dorsa Dehdari’s activity on social media painted a picture of a strained relationship with her father.
In a tweet posted at 11:55 a.m. Saturday, translated from Farsi, Dorsa wrote that she wished “from bottom of my heart that my dad drops dead at once so he wouldn’t torture us anymore.”
“I don’t have nerve to tolerate it anymore,” she added.
On April 23, the girls’ mother, Leila Dehdari, filed for divorce, and on May 2, Heidar Dehdari was served the documents at the Kincora residence. The couple had been married for nearly 27 years, according to court documents.
Leila Dehdari sought primary care of their teenage daughter, with the father “to have fair and liberal parenting time,” according to the documents.
Leila Dehdari also sought child support under the Federal Child Support Guidelines.
The documents do not mention any acrimony between the parents, who were married in Tehran in May 1992. Police say the girls’ mother was not home when the fire began. Police had previously been called to the home in December 2018 “for a domestic event, which was verbal in nature.”
“What we know at this point is there was a lot of domestic tension within the residence, which led to a violent confrontation on Saturday,” Schiavetta said.
In a statement delivered through police, the Dehdari family asked “for our privacy to be respected in this time of unimaginable sorrow.”
Mike Dehdari, a relative of Heidar who lives in Texas, said Tuesday that members of the extended family back home in Iran are “just devastated.”
“His brothers called me and they’re really feeling terrible,” said Mike, adding that they’re all in the dark on the details of what led to the fire.
“All we know is what we read in the paper,” he said.
Mike said he was close to Heidar, having taught him English after coming to Canada.
“I talk to Heidar on Skype three or four times a week. I even talked to him that Saturday morning and had no indication of anything at all,” he said.
The two made plans to speak again the following day after church, but Mike said he never got around to calling and only found out about the deadly fire on Monday.
“I’d never (had) even a clue,” he said. “This is a shock.”
Calgary police are continuing to investigate. Anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact police by calling the non-emergency number at 403266-1234, or the Homicide Tip Line at 403-428-8877.