A 22-year-old Thompson, Man., woman is facing serious charges after fires were started at a number of dangerous locations — including a gas station and a construction site — Wednesday night.
Thompson RCMP said they were called just after 10 p.m. about a woman who had made arson threats at Thompson General Hospital.
Officers began to patrol the area, and received a report 10 minutes later about a woman starting a fire at a nearby gas station by putting a lit cigarette in the nozzle of a gas pump.
Police said she attempted to start fires at other pumps, but all had been turned off for the night, so she wasn’t able to ignite anything other than residual gasoline left over in the nozzles.
The woman had left the scene before police arrived, but officers spotted a fire near heavy equipment and construction material down the road, in the area of Thompson Drive, Oak Street and Juniper Place.
Police found the woman sitting on top of an excavator, and after they got her into custody, determined it was the same suspect who had been at the hospital and the gas station.
No one was injured in the fires, but RCMP Staff Sgt. Shane Flanagan said the situation could have been much worse.
“We take this situation very seriously,” he said.
“If those pumps had been turned on, this incident would have been much more serious and there very likely would have been fatalities.”
The woman remains in custody, facing a charge of arson with disregard for human life.
RCMP continue to investigate.