Two homes constructed by the same builder south of Edmonton were destroyed in fires over the past month that Alberta RCMP have now determined were arson.
Police also believe the fires are linked to an extortion investigation that seen more than a dozen houses in Edmonton damaged or destroyed in recent months — an investigation city police are set to provide an update about on Thursday.
A home under construction in the Triomphe Estates neighbourhood of Beaumont was gutted in an early morning fire on Tuesday. It was the second time this month the same builder has lost a home in that development.
At 5:54 a.m. on Tuesday, RCMP got a call about a fire at a vacant property on Triomphe Boulevard. Firefighters arrived to find flames shooting from the house.
“We did a 360 and found out we had a substantial fire inside,” said Beaumont Fire Chief Jay Melvin. ” (We) switched to defensive tactics. Brought in extra resources from Leduc County and the City of Leduc.”
Construction on the exterior of the house was largely complete, but the inside still had work to be done.
“The home was fully built out on the outside — siding, windows. On the inside there was no drywall in the home. It was insulated, it had poly,” Melvin said.
The fire chief said while an initial fire investigation was done, on Tuesday it was too dangerous to enter the charred structure to take a closer look because it could collapse.
“Unfortunately the structure is not safe to go in. There’s no floors in it. It really is just four walls, no roof. It’s not stable enough, there’s a possibility of collapse,” Melvin said.
Melvin said the house burnt is a total loss.
“A lot of people put man hours to get it to that stage and it’s pretty well a teardown from the looks of it.”
A spokesperson for the City of Beaumont told Global News there was some damage to a neighbouring home.
The house was being built by Active Homes. Tuesday’s fire was the second by that builder to go up in flames in Triomphe Estates. The builder’s showhome just down the street burned on Dec. 14.
While the outside doesn’t look as bad, Melvin said the inside is basically a gut job.
“Unfortunately, there’s substantial damage in the main living area that would most likely cause that home to be torn down and rebuilt.”
No injuries have been reported.
The Beaumont fires come as Edmonton police warn of extortion arsons and shootings targeting South Asian builders.
Police said members of the South Asian business community are being threatened for money in exchange for “protection” and officials have said failure to pay out has resulted in arsons and drive-by shootings.
At least 11 instances of residential arson that have damaged more than 20 homes since November have been connected to the investigation.
Cases of such crimes are being investigated not just in Edmonton, but also in Ontario and in B.C.’s Lower Mainland.
Investigators say the tactics being used in Canada are commonly employed by organized crime groups in the Indian state of Punjab.
It said the suspects are believed to be tied to a gang based in India headed by a man named Lawrence Bishnoi, and the scheme targets “affluent members of the South Asian community.”
Police said the Hindi-speaking suspects use the messaging service WhatsApp to contact victims and threaten violence after “demanding large quantities of currency.”
In some cases, police said the suspects appear to have detailed knowledge of the victim’s personal information, such as family members, vehicles and lifestyle patterns.
If the victims don’t pay up, their properties get torched — or worse. Edmonton police said the suspects have been known to make follow-up demands for higher sums of money, “leading to an escalation of violence and drive-by shootings.”
The RCMP said on Tuesday it was investigating the fire as a possible arson and on Wednesday, confirmed the fires were deliberately set and being investigated as part of a larger extortion ring.
‘We know what’s been happening in the Edmonton area. We know where our community is, we border Edmonton. The build-up areas — we have several different areas under different constructions,” Melvin said.
The extortion case is a hot topic of conversation amongst tradespeople right now, said house framer Jordan Marling.
“I heard there was some arrests made. I thought it would stop,” Marling said. “But it seems like it’s just picking up. Hopefully they can get ahold of things and get it stopped.”
Marling noted while arsons are happening in vacant, under-construction homes — they’re in neighbourhoods full of homes already occupied.
“If there was someone living next to that, there could be kids upstairs, trapped in their bedrooms. All kinds of bad things could happen. It’s not just 2x4s and 2x6s getting burnt.”
“It’s a shame because that could’ve been someone’s house and we’ve got a shortage of homes right now.”
Hunarpreet Dhanoa lives in the area and saw the glow of the flames, hours before anything should be that bright outside.
“It was orange, from the window. I thought, ‘that’s not sun.’ So I took the blinds up and saw this fire,” Dhanoa said.
Dhanoa said he just moved into his house six month ago and is worried.
The weather conditions were a marked improvement from a few days ago when the overnight temperatures dropped to below -40 C outside Edmonton, but on Tuesday it was still cold enough to make things more challenging.
While firefighters battled the blaze for about three and a half hours, an Edmonton Transit Service bus was brought to the scene to provide a space for crews to warm up.
“Anytime they’re working with their gear on, they’re going to sweat. Then as soon as you stop working, you’re going to freeze, things get cold.”
An estimate of the damage has yet to be determined.
Global News reached out to Active Homes but was told nobody was available to speak.
Earlier this month Edmonton police said it had charged six young men and a youth in connection with the Edmonton arsons and shootings, but were searching for more suspects. More arsons have happened in the weeks since that announcement.
— With files from Nicole Siemens, Global News
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