Residents of a building fire are safe after what police believe to have been an arson attack at the Colonial Manor building near the Portage College last Wednesday. At about three that morning, the ground floor apartment was set ablaze, as a family of three -a husband and wife and a little boy, were inside the suite. No one was injured as a result of the fire but the family’ s pet guinea pig died in the fire.
Jordan Gauthier, the owner of the building was shocked when he learned that a fire broke out.
“I was pretty upset there -especially when you find out it was arson,” he said, adding that he doesn’ t know how much it will cost to fix the extensively damaged suite and apartments that got smoke damage from the blaze. “I’ m sure I’ ll be able to fix it ... It’ s not something we should have had to do. Tenants should be able to live peacefully and not have to worry about anything like that happening ... the people that caused it don’ t realize how many lives they affected.”
According to Gauthier, 30 people were evacuated from the 22-year-old building and displaced in the middle of the night. Police and fire officials allowed Gauthier and residents back into the building around 4:30 in the afternoon later that day.
The Red Cross was involved in placing people in hotels until it was safe to return to the building.
Local RCMP along with Hylo, Lac La Biche, Plamondon and Owl River fire districts responded to the call. When they got there they found that the fire was burning at the patio doors of the apartment. The majority of the damage from the fire was in the living room of the apartment. Fire fighters were able to extinguish the flames before it spread to other areas of the building.
John Kokotilo, the Regional Fire Chief said that the crew did a great job of extinguishing the fire.
“The crews did a very good job in containing the fire to the one apartment. The exterior of the building has vinyl siding so they managed to make sure that the fire did not extend to the vinyl siding and into the other apartments.”
No suspects have been found yet, but the RCMP and the Office of the Fire Commissioner are holding a joint criminal investigation to find the people who started the fire. Lac La Biche RCMP Sergeant Henry Van Dorland said that the suspects will be facing serious charges including a charge of attempted murder
“They’ ll be facing a charge of arson and we’ ll be putting it towards the crown because there were people in the apartment at the time when the accelerant was thrown in,” he said.
Police are asking for tips to find the suspects who were involved in the crime. Contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or call Lac La Biche RCMP at 780-623-4380 to leave information.
