RCMP Spokesperson Gord Molendyk
(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)
June 16, 2014 - 12:11 PM
VERNON - Police and the fire department are investigating a suspicious fire at a Vernon storage yard.
It is the seventeenth suspected arson under investigation by authorities. RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk says the fire was reported just after midnight Monday morning.
The target was a small wooden structure in a storage lot owned by Chapman Construction on 25 Avenue.
The fire was located near the edge of the fenced property, and the Vernon Fire Department was able to extinguish the fire from the road. It is unknown whether the culprit set the fire through the fence, or from inside it.
The Police Dog Unit was called in, but didn’t locate anyone of interest in the area.
Meanwhile, police are getting some response from a photo released last week of a person of interest. The image was gained through video surveillance in the area of the Vernon courthouse, where someone set a fire under the bumper of a B.C. Sherriff’s car.
Molendyk says this is the most serious rash of suspected arsons in recent memory in the city.
“When you’re into the mid to high teens, it’s very concerning,” Molendyk says. “It’s one of those frustrating files in the sense that they’re spread all around the community. Different things are being lit on fire from dumpsters to pallets to boats and vehicles.”
He says the only pattern right now is that the fires are being set between 11 p.m. and the early hours of morning.
“We’d like to get a break so we can put a stop to this,” Molendyk says.
Police are asking the public to keep an eye out for suspicious activity and to report it.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infotelnews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infotelnews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2014