One suspect has been arrested and North Vancouver RCMP are seeking witnesses to a series of arsons committed on July 15.
According to police, the first fire was spotted in a newspaper box on Lonsdale Avenue at 14th Street around 12:50 a.m. Five minutes later, a garbage can in the same area was torched.
Things went quiet until 5:30 p.m. when someone set alight a dumpster in the alley West of Lonsdale Avenue between First and Second streets. A second dumpster fire was reported at 6 p.m. in the underground parkade at 150 West Esplanade. After the fifth fire – an air conditioning unit outside a building at 123 Carrie Cates Crt. at 6:45 p.m., an officer on patrol spotted a suspect they believed was involved and took them into custody.
Thankfully, no one was hurt any of the fires, although each one caused varying degrees of property damage, said Sgt. Peter DeVries, North Vancouver RCMP spokesman.
“These kinds of situations do represent quite a significant risk to public,” he said.
DeVries said they will be recommending the Crown lay charges, but investigators are hoping to find every possible witness to the firebug’s work.
“We need to ensure that we've gathered all the available evidence, and that includes speaking to any witnesses who were there and obtaining video surveillance footage that may be available,” he said.
Of particular interest to police are three people who helped put out the first fire, DeVries noted.
DeVries could not say what the suspect’s motive was or how they went about starting fires.
Anyone with information about the fires is urged to contact North Vancouver RCMP Cpl. Adrian Bissenden from the major crimes unit at 604-969-7572.
