Early morning garage fire deemed suspicious

REGINA – Investigators are treating an early morning garage fire on the city’s southside as suspicious.

A detached garage burnt to the ground in the 600 block of Broadway Avenue around 3:00 a.m. The siding on the house plus three other neighbouring garages and also sustained damage.

“Someone knocked on our door and then we heard sirens, so we jumped out of bed. I looked out the kitchen window and it was pretty obviously what was going on, so I had a little panic attack,” said Caitlin Stewart, who lives next door to the fire. Her detached garage also sustained some damage.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. However, Deputy Fire Chief Gerard Kay is reminding residents to store their trash bins out of the alleyways.

“We’ve noted that some of the roll out bins are being used, particular the recycling ones, to start the fires,” said Kay. “So someone will come along, purposely throw something into the roll out bin, get it going on fire. And then, what it does is spreads.”

So far this year, Regina has had 140 garbage bin fires, about 20 garage fires, and 10 shed fires, which according to Kay is about the same as last year.