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Saskatoon Fire Department seeing increase in suspicious fires

Click to play video: 'Fire chief Morgan Hackl on the increasing trend of property fires in Saskatoon'
Fire chief Morgan Hackl on the increasing trend of property fires in Saskatoon
WATCH (May 21, 2020): Number of deliberately-set fires in Saskatoon on the rise – May 21, 2020

The Saskatoon Fire Department has been keeping busy, responding to an increase in suspicious fires in the city.

There have been a total of 11 fires deemed suspicious between mid-March and mid-April.

The Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) have joined investigations. The fires have been started in different ways and it’s not known if one person is responsible for multiple incidents.

“There’s no continuity and there’s no connection, it seems, between them that we’ve been able to identify so far,” Assistant Chief Wayne Rodger said.

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Most of the suspicious fires have been on abandoned properties, but some haven’t.

“There were two that were actually in homes that were occupied and deemed suspicious,” Rodger said.

One of the incidents involved garbage near the exterior of a home being set on fire.

Although it sometimes can’t be determined if a fire is intentional or accidental, Rodger said there hasn’t been an increase in accidental fires in Saskatoon.

The SPS investigations are ongoing.

Click to play video: 'Fighting fires and COVID-19: Big changes for Sask. crews this wildfire season'
Fighting fires and COVID-19: Big changes for Sask. crews this wildfire season

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