Charlotte Helston is a reporter with InfoTel News.
(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)
June 13, 2014 - 7:00 AM
In the past five weeks, Vernon has been on edge with an ongoing string of suspected arsons now totaling 15 fires.
First it was dumpsters. Then piles of garbage and recycling. Now boats and vehicles. Two men were arrested in connection to one of the fires, but police don't believe they set the others. Unfortunately for the owner of a recently torched pleasure boat, authorities are in the dark about other culprits or copy cats.
Police are working furiously to find the person, or people, responsible by calling in behavioural experts, analyzing patterns, focussing patrols in areas where the fires were set and alerting neighbourhood watches.
But they need your help to solve this. Arsons are hard to solve because, quite simply, all the evidence turns to ash. If suspects are wise, they’ll dodge video cameras. That’s why all of us—from mail ladies, to dog walkers, to bartenders—have to pay attention.
It might be someone running from the scene. Someone watching it burn. Someone bragging about it to their friends. If your gut tells you it’s significant, tell the police. You never know what blanks you might be filling in.
So far the fires have been limited to property damage but how long before it spreads to an interface fire? How long before someone is seriously hurt?
If we don’t work together, the next fire could leave a tragic scar on the community.
Here's a map of suspected arsons in the past five weeks, and the times they were set.
News from © iNFOnews, 2014