Cap Pele’s favourite seafood takeout restaurant is unrecognizable after it was engulfed in flames at 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, the latest in a string of suspicious fires in the region that started in 2019.
In a Facebook post, the owners said that while no one was hurt, the building is gone.
They declined to comment further on Monday.
Cap-Pelé /Beaubassin-East Chamber of Commerce CEO Anthony Azard said this is a big loss for the community and the tourists it attracts.
“For the local citizens it was basically the takeout that they would buy to say the summer season is starting,” he said in an interview on Monday.
He said Cap-Pele’s business community is extremely concerned after multiple businesses burned down in the area since 2019.
“Last August, for example, three weekends in a row, we had to respond to calls from smokehouses because there were smokehouses burned down every weekend. So we’re very concerned, the business community right now … Because we don’t know who is gonna be next,” he said.
He said his organization has told its members to increase security around the building, for example, by adding cameras.
“It’s not easy for all the businesses because we’ve been facing a pandemic for the last two and a half years. It’s pretty hard for those businesses to invest more than they’ve already invested,” Azard said.
He said some businesses simply weren’t able to make additional investments to upgrade their security.
The RCMP told the Canadian Press on Sunday there have been a number of suspicious fires in the past two years in the area, but no specific links have been drawn between the incidents
RCMP members are canvassing the area around Chez Camille to see if there is any video surveillance that might assist the investigation.
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