The trial of a Canadian soldier accused of trying to kill her children by setting fire to her CFB Edmonton home continued Monday, where fire investigators testified the blaze was quickly deemed “not accidental.”
The trial began on Feb. 7, where Crown prosecutor Dallas Sopko said the fire was the final act in a bitter custody battle. The woman — who cannot be identified under a publication ban to protect the identities of the children — faces two counts of arson and three counts of attempted murder related to the 2015 fire.
On Monday, Feb. 13, former fire chief Joseph Mayer took to the stand.
Mayer was the CFB Fire Chief from 2014 to 2015 and was the first to examine the scene. He claimed it was the first fire with a “criminal element” in his career.
Mayer testified that he required additional resources for the investigation. “I did not have the experience for a fire of that magnitude,” he explained. Due to his inexperience in investigation, Jean Grenier was called to assist.
Mayer said that at approximately 7:30am on July 20th, 2015, he was informed of the fire and was accompanied by the deputy fire chief on the scene. He saw no signs of forced entry and noted there was significant smoke damage to the first floor. His initial impression of the scene was that it may be an electrical fire.
The cause of the fire and its point of origin were the primary focuses of Mayer’s initial investigation. He said the fire originated in the basement of the family’s two-story home.
Mayer said there were three smoke alarms in the home, however, he discovered that they were not correctly mounted, and the batteries were removed. The alarm in the basement was ultimately melted by the heat of the flames. Upon further investigation, two fire alarms were discovered in a garbage bag in the basement, along with fire accelerants, including fire paste and lamp oil, which were seized as evidence. Mayer said the tube of fire paste was missing its cap and appeared to be “well used.”
Defence lawyer Curtis Steeves argued that there was a discrepancy in Mayer’s testimony, as compared to his preliminary statement, and as such it was impossible to determine with any degree of certainty when the fire alarms were placed in the garbage bag.
Fire scene examiner Jean Grenier said his assistance was requested on scene and he arrived on July 22, 2015.
Grenier said the first thing he noticed when entering the structure was an empty socket where the fire alarm should be. Based on his initial walk through of the site, the fire was elevated from a category 2 to category 1 fire, indicating more significant damage. He evaluated the cause as incendiary, or a “voluntary act.”
“[This was] not accidental, or electrical, not child’s play,” he explained, adding that he was “99 per cent sure” the blaze was not accidental.
Grenier also noted the basement door had been closed, preventing the flow of oxygen and therefore preventing the further spread of the flames.
Before the fire
The accused took her children on a shopping spree in the days leading up to the blaze and wrote a letter to a friend saying she would soon be either dead or in jail, a prosecutor said last week, as reported by the Edmonton Journal.
“This case is about a mom who came to the conclusion that she would rather kill herself and her three children rather than comply with a court order to give primary custody of the children to an ex-husband she despises,” the Crown prosecutor said.
Sopko said the accused took the children on an “unusual” shopping spree at West Edmonton Mall starting July 17, 2015, — a few days before they were to return to the primary custody of their father. He said the family then returned to their home on the base. The children were supposed to attend a camp on July 19, 2015, but fell ill and spent the day with their mother.
The Crown alleges that around 1 a.m. on July 20, 2015, the accused went into the basement and started a fire. Neighbours noticed the smoke and helped evacuate the house while fire crews made their way to the scene.
Court heard from John Dunbar on Feb. 7, as reported by the Edmonton Journal, a neighbour who was among the first to notice the smell of smoke the morning of the fire.
Dunbar reported hearing a child screaming from the upstairs window of his neighbour’s residence. He ran home to grab a ladder and recalled the child repeatedly saying “I’m going to die” as he helped the child off the roof. A second child emerged from the front door while a second group of neighbours searched the home and located the mother and the third child.
On Feb. 9, as reported by the Edmonton Journal, one of the children, now 17, testified against his mother, saying he remembered his mom assuring him the smell of smoke was just bad air rolling in from wildfires in Saskatchewan. When it got so bad the boy went downstairs and found smoke pouring out of the basement, his mother allegedly told him to go back to bed.
The children’s father also took the stand Wednesday to give evidence for the Crown. He told court the relationship and separation were “very difficult.” At the time of the fire, the ex-husband was deployed to Saskatchewan to help with firefighting efforts. He had recently received a court order granting him full custody of the children, with the handover date of July 24, 2015.
Military police conducted two investigations into the cause of the fire in 2015 and 2016 but closed the files without charges. The case was eventually re-opened and the woman was charged in 2019.
The trial is scheduled for two weeks, set to wrap this Friday, and is being heard by Court of King’s Bench Justice John Little without a jury.
