UPDATE: RCMP say Wakesiah Avenue fire was arson, suspect has been arrested
PREVIOUSLY POSTED: Nanaimo Fire Rescue and RCMP are investigating a fire that broke out and caused heavy damage in an apartment building in the Wakesiah area on the weekend.
Firefighters were called to blaze in an apartment in the 100 block of Wakesiah Avenue on Sunday, April 18, shortly before 1:30 p.m.
Fire investigators were investigating the scene Monday.
“We think it was a suspicious fire,” said Capt. Alan Millbank, head of Nanaimo Fire Rescue’s Fire and Loss Prevention division. “RCMP have taken over that part.”
The fire broke out in a ground-floor apartment, which was occupied by two people who were not home at the time of the fire, which spread to a second-floor apartment that was vacant.
There were no reported injuries resulting from the incident and Millbank would not discuss what led the fire department to call upon the police.
Const. Gary O’Brien, Nanaimo RCMP spokesman, had not received details about the investigation into the fire Monday, but did confirm an police investigation had been started.
The cause of the fire, which completely gutted the ground-floor apartment, has not been determined.
Firefighters called to a structure fire in an apartment in the 100 block of Wakesiah Ave. Fire appears to be out; Wakesiah is closed in both directions between First and Second streets. #Nanaimo pic.twitter.com/pNIWUBd83u
— Nanaimo Bulletin (@NanaimoBulletin) April 18, 2021
Millbank is also asking people in Nanaimo to be extremely cautious with cigarettes and fire after Nanaimo Fire Rescue responded to 16 fire calls over the weekend, which included another structure fire on Emery Way, multiple bark mulch fires and two incidents of tires being set alight in the parking lots of Dover Bay Secondary School and Rutherford Elementary School.
“The only thing I would say to people right now is be careful of how you’re discarding your cigarettes because we’ve had an unusually dry spring,” Millbank said.
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Nanaimo Fire Rescue investigators Mark Jonah, left, and Capt. Alan Millbank probe the scene of a blaze that destroyed two apartments on Sunday, April 18. The cause of the blaze has not been determined. (Chris Bush/News Bulletin)
