OnlyFans content creator and Slag Wars co-host Matthew Camp escaped from his burning home in Poughkeepsie, New York, in the early hours of January 14 after an unidentified man set the building ablaze. The fire burned for three hours before firefighters were able to extinguish it.
Security footage shows a man in a hazmat suit pouring gasoline on the house at 5:09 AM before setting it alight. Camp was asleep inside, along with friend Six Carter. Camp—who purchased the house in October 2020—addressed the crime on Twitter January 18.
This is what hate looks like.
5:09am they poured gasoline on my home while I was I sleeping and set it ablaze.
I survived. I will not be silenced. pic.twitter.com/aK1SnscvkF
— Matthew Camp (@MatthewCampNYC) January 18, 2021
A crowdfunding campaign is currently in progress to help Camp, who was unable to salvage any personal belongings. Though Camp is treating it as an anti-gay hate crime, the Poughkeepsie Journal reports that the house was, until Camp’s purchase, a well-known “hub” for neighborhood Church of Satan members, some of whom are treating the arson as an anti-Church of Satan hate crime.
Camp told Out Magazine that he purchased the house to honor his “longtime friend and mentor,” previous owner and high-ranking member of the Church of Satan Joe “Netherworld” Mendillo.
“It went by many names to many people,” Camp said of the house, built in 1900. “To the outside world, maybe they reduced it to the ‘Halloween House’ but to my chosen family and myself it was much more than that.”
For members of the Church of Satan in the area, the attack seemed to be aimed at them. One member, Isis Vermouth, told the Poughkeepsie Journal that the fire felt like a “terrorist attack,” adding, “Everybody’s in shock and everyone in the neighborhood is worried. Whoever did this is going to be hexed by all of us. I feel like this was definitely malicious. Someone showed up in a hazmat suit and poured two huge jugs of gasoline on the porch while everyone was sleeping. I just don’t understand why anyone would want to piss off Satanic witches. Cause now there’s going to be hell to pay.”
Regardless of the reason, Camp and Carter had a frighteningly narrow escape. The arsonist is still at large.
