THE police investigation into a fatal unit fire at Stockton has turned into a murder investigation with homicide detectives taking the lead.
The State Crime Command's homicide unit have set up Strike Force Childowla, asking anyone with relevant information to come forward.
Police, including forensic officers, spent days raking through the remains of the gutted unit which errupted into flames early in the morning of July 26.
The sole occupier of the one-bedroom housing commission flat, 55-year-old Graham Cameron, was killed in the blaze.
Fire crews arrived just after 5am to find the unit well alight and were in time to rescue a woman from an adjoining unit but neither Mr Cameron or his home could be saved.
Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Greg Symonds said Mr Cameron's home was "almost totally destroyed" when firefighters arrived at the scene.
"It was a wind-driven fire with very strong wind gusts," he said.
"The fire had vented so it wasn't oxygen-controlled. It would have been a very intense fire, probably up around 1000 degrees."
The fire spread through the roof cavity to the adjoining units which have been evacuated and remain empty.
Neighbours say that Mr Cameron kept to himself and was never without his dog Izzy, who was uninjured and is now in the care of Mr Cameron's sister, Bernice Hughes.
One neighbour said she heard loud banging noises between 3am and 4am but said she 'wasn't game' to get up to investigate following a separate incident weeks before, also involving police and a second unit in the same block. Police seized drugs - methamphetamine (ice), cocaine, heroin and cannabis, as well as $450,000 in cash and electronic equipment from that unit on Friday, July 9.
The raid was conducted as part of a broader investigation into the supply of illicit drugs across NSW. Police later stopped a white Mitsubishi Triton ute on the Sturt Highway, Hay, and allegedly found more than 30kg of methylamphetamine (ice), 11kg of MDMA, 3kg of heroin and 4kg of cocaine inside it. The driver, a 65-year-old man, was arrested and charged. The unit, just around the corner from Mr Cameron's destroyed home, remains boarded up and unoccupied. Neighbours say the two men were not well known to one another.
