Prosecutors have charged a man with negligence and manslaughter for a May 14 blaze in White Bear Lake that engulfed a residential building and killed his mother.
The Ramsey County Attorney's Office charged Christian Thomas Dahm, 45, with second degree manslaughter and negligent fire causing great bodily harm for the May 14 fire that led to the death five days later of Patricia Ann Dahm, 79.
Dahm is currently in prison serving a 60 month sentence for violating his probation. That probation stems from another case in 2021 when officers found unspent shotgun and pistol ammo in Dahm's possession. He was not allowed to keep ammo because of a prior burglary charge.
According to the charging documents, White Bear Lake officers responded to Aspen Court at 11:38 p.m. that night for reports of a fire and "things blowing up" inside of a fourplex residential building. An officer arrived to find the building was engulfed in flames that seemed to be spreading to nearby housing units.
When police asked a man outside for the location of his son, the man pointed to his back patio and told police, "he's over there. He started the fire."
Officers found Dahm there incoherent and nearly nude, handcuffing him before he became "dead weight" and had to be carried away from the fire. Before being taken to the hospital for an evaluation, Dahm told investigators that he was in the garage working on his fishing pole over a car hood before the fire began and said he did not want to be around his father.
"I was using oil, there was an oil pan, and I had a cigarette I lit with a torch," Dahm told investigators. "All of a sudden, there was a fire."
Dahm's father told investigators that his son was creating a disturbance that day, which was common, he said. Dahm's father reported that his son had left an unextinguished Sterno can on top of cardboard boxes the day before. The night of the fire, Dahm's parents went downstairs to check on Dahm because they were worried he was high on methamphetamine.
