Arson Suspected at Canwest Building in British Columbia

By: E&P Staff Canwest News Service reported that the building it owns at its Alberni Valley Times in Port Alberni, British Columbia, was the likely target of an arsonist early Sunday morning.

The fire was discovered in two trash containers by Dennis Houle, owner of Houle Printing, housed in the Times pressroom (which closed in September 2001). Houle shares hallways and utilities with Canwest MediaWorks' Times.

Arriving to work on a large project at 5 a.m., Houle found both containers, "which were parked against the wall, fully engulfed in flames," reported Shayne Morrow.

Houle and a driver returning from work elsewhere together managed to keep the fire down using multiple extinguishers until the fire department arrived.

"They'd just been started, maybe 10 minutes earlier," the Times quoted Houle saying. "The fire was right down to the bottom of the dumpster."

The worker who stopped to assist Houle told police he'd seen two men heading up the street just before he saw the smoke.

No sooner had firefighters arrived than they were called to a fuel station on the same street. Nozzles at the station had self-extinguished. So the firefighters returned to the Times building, where the fire had flared again.

A firefighter told Morrow that although Houle and the passerby had pulled the trash containers away from the building, flames were climbing its wooden walls.

A fire captain told Morrow he didn't doubt the trash had been deliberately ignited. He said that while a smoldering item can accidentally start such fires, "at that time of the morning, dumpster fires are usually arson."

No suspects have been identified in what is the fourth incident of suspected arson in recent weeks. Last month, lighted material was thrown into a home at about 1:30 a.m., and a kiosk at a marina was burned down about 30 minutes later.