Firefighters battled three blazes in Nanaimo on the weekend.
One of two fires Saturday happened near the Thrifty Foods on Turner Road and the other at Winchelsea Place, said Martin Drakeley, assistant chief of operations for Nanaimo Fire Rescue.
A third fire also broke out in the city’s south end Sunday.
“For Turner Road, crews arrived on scene to a fully involved construction trailer, so it was a … fenced yard and it was an old construction trailer,” said Drakeley. “It had been on scene for the better part of five to 10 years anyways, so it was abandoned. There was no current activity in it and hadn’t been for a while.”
Drakeley said that fire is considered suspicious and RCMP and the fire investigation unit are examining the scene. Traffic was blocked off for about an hour.
Capt. Ennis Mond, head of Nanaimo Fire Rescues’s Fire Loss and Prevention Division, said Monday no exact cause for the trailer fire was found and there did not appear to any signs of anyone having taken up shelter in it. He noted that there are a number of breaches in the fence bordering the property.
“Looking at it, from my perspective, just the time of day, it might have been kids playing in there, but that’s a big ‘might have’. That’s just me thinking that way. There’s nothing that proves it,” Mond said.
The fire at Winchelsea Place was a rental house fire.
“Neighbours noticed smoke coming from the eaves of the house and called the fire department,” said Drakeley. “We arrived on scene and the fire had actually vented through the back of the house and so we made entry, made a quick knockdown and managed to clear all the smoke out of the house. We notified the owner and it’s currently under investigation as well.”
Since the occupants weren’t home at the time, he couldn’t comment on whether the fire was suspicious until the investigation is complete.
Mond said he and another investigator would be meeting with the tenant of the home Monday afternoon and are continuing the investigation into the cause of the fire.
A fire Sunday at about 9 a.m. also damaged the Loaves and Fishes Community Food Bank building at 1009 Farquhar St.
Mond said someone appeared to have been “sheltering” on the front porch of the building, which was built in 1913 as the Provincial Government Mine Rescue Station, and the person’s belongings in a shopping cart caught fire.
The fire was caught early and damage was limited to the contents of the shopping cart and a wooden railing on the porch, he said.
