For the third time in three days, police and the Ontario Fire Marshal are investigating a suspicious fire in the Napanee, Ont., area.
This latest blaze happened overnight in Stone Mills Township, where a garage and part of a house were left charred.
“People were sleeping in that house,” says Karn Laursen, one of the victims.
“We could’ve been seriously hurt. Or we could’ve died.”
This is the latest in a string of suspicious fires to hit the region.
First was the old Napanee arena, which housed the Lennox Agricultural Society.
Then, the president of the society’s garage in Yarker.
And now, the president’s neighbours, just two doors down, had their garage burned to the ground.
“We slept at our neighbour’s — well, haven’t slept yet. But we stayed at our neighbour’s for the rest of the night.”
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Police say they can’t determine just yet if this blaze is connected to the other two fires, but Laursen says she has no connection to the Lennox Agricultural Society.
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The victims of the two house fires both say they heard a loud bang before looking out the window and seeing their garages up in flames.
“We heard, my husband and I, heard some noise,” says Laursen.
“We were up and looking. We were feeling pretty freaked out. I don’t know why somebody would do this.”
This latest fire was called in around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Everyone was able to get out safely, including the pets, but the fire did spread to part of the house.
“This is untypical for Stone Mills,” says Stone Mills Township Deputy Fire Chief James Richmond.
“We don’t typically have structure fires within the same vicinity and so close together.”
The Ontario Fire Marshal is now also investigating the cause of this fire, along with the two fires from earlier this week.
It will be up to police whether they find a link between this fire and the others.
In the meantime, residents of the Greater Napanee area will have to wait to find out if there is a serial arsonist targeting their community.
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