Police tape is seen outside a Masonic Temple in Lynn Valley in North Vancouver, B.C., Tuesday, March 30, 2021. Police say five more criminal charges have been approved against the man accused of setting fire to three Masonic halls in Metro Vancouver last week. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
April 06, 2021 - 4:50 PM
VANCOUVER - Police say five more charges have been approved against a man accused of setting fire to three Masonic halls in Metro Vancouver last week.
Police say 42-year-old Benjamin Kohlman was charged Tuesday with two counts of arson and three counts of break and enter to commit arson after fires in Vancouver and North Vancouver.
Police arrested Kohlman in nearby Burnaby within a few hours of the fires.
He was charged the following day with one count of arson in relation to the fire in Vancouver, as well as one count of assaulting a police officer.
All three fires were allegedly set in the span of an hour last Tuesday.
The first call came in at around 6:45 a.m. about a fire at the Lynn Valley Lodge in North Vancouver, while a second fire reported minutes later severely damaged a Masonic centre located four kilometres away.
Fire officials said the third fire at a Masonic hall in east Vancouver was reported around 7:30 a.m. and caused little damage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 6, 2021.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2021