Vancouver Police say they are investigating at least 25 suspicious fires at vacant homes in Vancouver so far this year.
Investigators are working to determine a motive and if any of these fires are related.
Eight of at least 25 suspicious fires recorded this year have occurred since Oct. 23.
No one has been seriously hurt in any of the fires, but investigators are becoming increasingly concerned about their frequency.
They say even though the homes are vacant, there is a real danger that the fires can turn deadly.
“The individuals setting these fires are putting the lives of the public and firefighters at risk,” says Vancouver Police Const. Jason Doucette.
Doucette says they are trying to figure out if there is a single suspect or multiple individuals possibly involved.
He says the fires seem to be spread out throughout the city and are not concentrated in one specific location.
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Doucette also says it appears there are approximately four times the number of vacant house fires so far in 2016, over the total in 2015.
In the latest incident involving a fire at a vacant building in Vancouver, a historic and ‘endangered’ church on West 41 Avenue and East Boulevard went up in flames on Tuesday. The Kerrisdale Baptist Church was slated for demolition and neighbours say it has been empty for a while.
In another incident just a week before, a fire broke out in a massive $16-million home on Vancouver’s West Side. It appears the house had been vacant for some time.
WATCH: Arson is suspected in a fire that destroyed a historic Vancouver church overnight. As Jordan Armstrong reports, it’s just the latest in a string of suspicious fires in abandoned buildings.
Police are asking the public to be vigilant in areas of vacant homes and report any suspicious activity to 9-1-1 immediately.
Anyone who may have information on any of the suspicious fires is asked to call police. A tip line has been set up at 604-717-0605 or at Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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