Some Nanaimo, B.C., residents are raising concerns about a string of recent suspicious fires amid tinder-dry conditions.
The most recent fire broke out early Saturday morning behind Evergreen Cremation Services on Nicol Street.
“There was actually a pile of debris that was actually lit on fire, and that’s what lit the building,” owner Kevin Owens told Global News.
“(I’m feeling) probably a cross between disappointment and anger. Disappointment that the situation exists, anger that it happened to me, that it happens to others.”
Fortunately, firefighters were able to put the flames out before they caused serious damage to the building.
Nanaimo RCMP said it has determined the fire broke out when someone set a homeless person’s belongings on fire in the parking lot behind the business.
“We later located him. He wasn’t injured in any way, and he couldn’t really assist in the investigation; he couldn’t provide any names on who he thought had set his items on fire,” Const. Gary O’Brien said.
“It’s very troubling. A lot of these fires we know are being set by marginalized people who are deep in the throes of addiction. Having said that, it’s tinder dry and it’s essential if anybody sees a fire considered suspicious to call us immediately.”
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O’Brien said police had reviewed security video that showed someone setting the items on fire, but that it wasn’t clear enough to get a suspect description.
The incident follows a pair of suspicious fires on Aug. 19.
In one case, the flames gutted a dental office on Wentworth Street. Police were able to arrest two suspects in that case, one of whom has been charged.
The same day, another fire was reportedly set on the back wall of the Vancouver Island Raiders’ Football Club fieldhouse.
The fires have prompted renewed advocacy from a group of Nanaimo residents who have been raising concerns about crime and property damage in the city for months.
“It feels for us like if it’s out of the news, then our elected officials get a free pass and they can worry about something else,” Nanaimo Area Public Safety Association president Collen Middleton said.
Middleton said the recent fires have the community on edge, particularly as they appear to have been randomly set.
“We see the smoke coming over the Georgia Strait from the fires in the interior and then we have these fires being lit by people that seem to have no regard for the danger that they’re putting the public in,” he added.
The association is renewing its call for action from the government to address the housing crisis, drug and mental health crisis, and what the group believes is a crisis of enforcement and accountability in the judicial system.
“There’s really no time left to play politics or play the blame game. We need changes to be enacted and enforced immediately. All of these politicians need to get back from their summer holidays — it’s over, guys,” he said.
Crime concerns have prompted a number of public safety rallies in Nanaimo, and in April the province announced the city would get one of a dozen new hubs in the Repeat Violent Offending Intervention Initiative.
The program involves a dedicated team of police, prosecutors and probation officers housed in each hub with the goal of cracking down on repeat, violent offenders, and following prolific offenders through the court process to try and break cycles of recidivism.
As of Aug. 2, 64 case referrals have been made to the program in Nanaimo.
Back at Owens’ crematorium, the interior damage is minor — and it won’t affect operations as he has a second location.
But he said the province needs to do something to deal with the social issues in the city.
“Make sure that the people who need the help get the help and get off the streets,” he said.
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