WATCH ABOVE: Police in Owen Sound say up to 10 fires were sparked and a teen is now facing 21 counts of arson. Some of the fires were put out quickly but others destroyed homes and displaced 23 people. Lama Nicolas reports.
TORONTO — Two suspects have been arrested in connection with an “arson spree” that devastated a small community in Owen Sound, Ont., early Monday.
A 17-year-old from nearby Chatsworth was expected to attend a bail hearing Tuesday on 16 counts of arson endangering life and five counts of arson.
Several homes and property, including a 10-unit townhouse complex, were either badly damaged or destroyed in the fires, which Police Chief Bill Sornberger has said were all acts of arson.
Sandra Hagen said she lost her home in the fire and countless sentimental items, which were not insured.
“I just couldn’t describe it, it’s just like you’re watching your whole life just go,” she said.
“My oldest son had cystic fibrosis and he passed away and his pictures, his wedding video, I had a couple of his shirts to remember him by — they’re all gone.”
Most of the fires were reported around 4 a.m. in the St. Mary’s Hill area of the city. A total of 10 people – most of them from the townhouse complex – were treated in hospital for symptoms of smoke inhalation.
The fires left 23 families homeless and six families were not insured.
Hagen said when the fire started she ran from her house and tried to pour water on it, before realizing her entire backyard was engulfed in flames.
“So I ran back in the house and I started screaming for everybody to get out,” she said.
“We got out, it was a good thing my son and his friend were down at my son’s girlfriend’s house, which is just at the corner down the street … they were the ones that saw it and they started banging on all of the doors on 15th Street.”
Hagen said she also lost a dozen artistically-crafted wooden roses that her mother had left her before she died.
“My mother thought of this before she died to give to her family to remember her by and now I don’t have it,” she said.
“It’s the memories. Clothes, kitchen stuff, fridge, stove, beds, you can replace. But it’s the things you get from people that are no longer here that you just cannot ever replace.”
Hagen said she is still in shock from the fire and wakes up in the middle of the night shaking, but said “you just have to keep going.”
“I’m very angry, I knew it was a spree that night because there was at least seven or eight buildings and structures that were set on fire,” she said, adding that some of her neighbours were lucky to escape when they did. “Five minutes later all of them would have been dead.”
Daniel Krieger said he woke up to a friend staying with him yelling for him to get out of bed when the fire began spreading.
“The first thing I saw was the house behind me in flames … it was like a flamethrower coming out, just shooting right up my house,” he said, adding that his daughter was sleeping upstairs at the time.
“So I ran upstairs and I’m yelling at her, ‘Get up! Get up! We’ve got to get out!’ and she was pretty shaken up so we just got up and just got out of the house and we went to our neighbour’s and it was just brutal. We watched my house, it looked like a war zone.”
Owen Sound Police said Tuesday they had arrested a second unnamed female near the Owen Sound Courthouse on 9th Avenue East in connection to the “arson spree” that occurred at about 4 a.m. on Monday.
Police said additional details on that arrest would be released at a later date, adding that a third suspect is still being sought.
“Our investigation indicates that we are seeking at least one additional suspect. Although we are making positive strides in our investigation there is still much work to be done,” Insp. Vince Wurfel said in a statement.
“We have significantly diminished the risk to our community in relation to a re-occurrence of these events, however we would like to remind the community to remain vigilant until all suspects are apprehended.”
Fire Prevention Officer Greg Nicol said the challenge for firefighters was a lack of numbers, since they only have five people on staff, with an additional five that can respond from home.
“That’s a taxing opportunity for one house fire, let alone three,” he said.
“It was a tough one to battle because of the intense heat from the fire and the size of the fires. Getting water and just getting bodies to the fires.”
Nicol said the Ontario Fire Marshal is now investigating the fire, which he called “unprecedented” in the small community.
Krieger said the fact that an alleged arsonist set fire to his house is “scary” and it’s something that will take time for the community to recover from.
“Who does that? I mean that’s not even a joke it’s people’s lives,” he said.
“Thankfully somebody was watching down, nobody got killed in this whole thing. But who goes around setting these fires? This wasn’t just a little prank, this was premeditated.”
With files from Lama Nicolas and The Canadian Press
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