Kamloops RCMP are investigating a fire in a hotel room that is being deemed suspicious, and need the public’s help identifying a suspect.
The fire broke out in a second-floor room of the Travelodge on Rogers Way in Aberdeen around 8 a.m. Thursday.
Fire crews said they were able to knock down the smoke and flames quickly.
Kamloops Fire Rescue Captain Kris Krutop said at the scene that something about the state of the room gave away that the fire was suspicious.
“It doesn’t look like a room would typically look, is all I can really tell you,” he said. “It doesn’t quite match up with what we would normally see.”
According to witnesses, a man was seen leaving the room when they went to investigate smells of smoke. The man then got into a pick-up truck and drove away.
Police say the man is believed to be the same man who was registered in the room, but the name and licence plate supplied to hotel management “has not yielded a positive identification.”
The man is described as Caucasian, in his mid-30s with facial hair. He was wearing a blue button-down shirt and a red ball cap on backwards when he checked into the hotel. When he left, witnesses say he was wearing a grey sweater.
The vehicle the man was driving was a black Ford pickup truck “partially lifted” with an Alberta licence plate and a broken left tail light.
Anyone with information helpful to investigators is asked to contact Kamloops RCMP, or to submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers.
—With files from CFJC Kamloops
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