Members of Thompson Fire & Emergency Services (TFES) have been on high alert over the last two weeks, since a series of suspicious fires have popped up in the city’s residential areas.
On May 29, TFES was deployed to the Juniper area around 2:20 a.m. after receiving a call about a dumpster fire.
However, when firefighters arrived they discovered that a house was set ablaze after a person or group of people placed a flaming recycling bin next to the front door.
“When the crews arrived on scene, the fire went up the wall and had gotten into the attic and it breached the roof,” said deputy fire chief Steve Molloy. ”We determined, based on information received at the scene, that the fire was suspicious in nature and we handed it over to the RCMP for further investigation.”
In a recent Facebook post, resident Ronba Wood said she and her family were asleep when their house caught fire and might have been seriously hurt if not for a few Good Samaritans.
“Many many thanks to my neighbors who came pounding on the door to come let us know that our house was engulfed in flames outside,” she wrote.
According to Molloy, Wood and her family didn’t sustain any serious injuries during this incident.
TFES members were out in full force once again in the early morning of June 3 after receiving a call at 1:50 a.m. about a grass fire between Pintail Crescent and Westwood School.
At the same time, firefighters were also called to put out another grass fire on Partridge Crescent a short distance away.
“If you had a topographical map and drew a straight line and were a betting man, chances are, and this is my personal opinion, I assume this would be the same persons. They were just going straight through that thoroughfare,” said Molloy.
Coupled together with a false fire alarm that was pulled at an apartment building on Goldeye Crescent at around 2:30 a.m. that same morning, the deputy chief said that TFES’ resources were “stretched to the max” within a span of 30-40 minutes.
Since Thompson is moving into a part of the year where these incidents are becoming more and more common, Molloy urged local residents to be on high alert and call 204-677-7911 if they spot any suspicious activity.
Thompson RCMP haven’t arrested anyone in connection to these resent arsons.
