Tag Archives: arson

London, ON, Canada – Possible arson fire at school activates fire sprinkler system

London police and fire inspectors are investigating a case of arson at a northwest London elementary school Tuesday morning.  Firefighters were called to Wilfrid Jury Public School at 950 Lawson Road at around 5:06 a.m. after alarm bells sounded.

Upon arrival, smoke was visible inside the building and sprinklers were activated. Fire officials say there was a broken window at the back of the building, along with signs of forced entry inside. There was fire set inside a classroom, which was extinguished by the sprinkler system.

An early estimate pegs the damage at around $20,000.  There are currently no suspects in custody, or suspect descriptions at this time. The Thames Valley District School Board says all summer programs and childcare will be open, with some classroom adjustments.

Macon, GA – Arson fire at high-rise apartments contained with help from sprinkler system

Fire alarms and sprinklers went off again Monday morning at St. Paul Apartments, a high-rise at 1330 Forsyth St. plagued by recent arsons.  Macon-Bibb County fire investigator Sgt. Steve Wesson said several fires have been reported at the building in the past three or four weeks. 

“A resident was setting something on fire and throwing it down the trash chute, causing the Dumpster to catch on fire,” Wesson said before leaving the apartments Monday morning.

About 5:30 a.m., Macon-Bibb firefighters responded to a small fire in room 904, a vacant apartment that was being used for storage, Macon-Bibb fire investigator Lt. Ben Gleaton said.

The room had been burglarized, some tools stolen and a fire set, Wesson said.  “I hope you get whoever. This is crazy,” fourth-floor resident Brigitte Gramke told the investigators as she walked her dog outside the brick building near downtown Macon. “It’s really bad.”

A Bibb County deputy arrested Robert Walter Hutchens, 75, who lives in room 901 at St. Paul Apartments.  Hutchens was charged with burglary, according to Bibb County jail records, and stolen tools were recovered.

Additional charges are pending if Hutchens is found responsible for the fire.  The sprinkler system caused water damage in some of the building, Gleaton said.

“It has to cost a fortune and usually it’s arson,” Gramke said of the multiple fires.  The St. Paul Apartments manager declined to comment Monday morning.

Cheltenham, PA – Arson fire at apartment building suppressed by sprinkler system

Residents of one of the rebuilt buildings at the apartments at 1600 Church Road were evacuated May 31 after a fire alarm went off at 2:46 a.m., Cheltenham police reported. The fire was believed to be arson, police said.

Several people reported smelling an odor of gasoline and there was an odor of gasoline in a stairwell in the first floor of the B building, where the fire was located, said Cheltenham Fire Marshal Joe O’Neill, who confirmed “the fire was set” and is under investigation. “The sprinkler system put out the fire almost immediately,” he said.

There was fire damage to the stairwell and smoke, soot and water damage to carpet in that area, O’Neill said. The building had previously been destroyed in a fire in October 2012.

Glenside Fire Company assisted by Edge Hill and LaMott fire companies responded to the scene to “make sure the hazard was addressed” and clear the smoke and odor of gasoline from the building, O’Neill said.

Cheltenham, PA – Arson fire at apartment building suppressed by sprinkler system

Residents of one of the rebuilt buildings at the apartments at 1600 Church Road were evacuated May 31 after a fire alarm went off at 2:46 a.m., Cheltenham police reported. The fire was believed to be arson, police said.

Several people reported smelling an odor of gasoline and there was an odor of gasoline in a stairwell in the first floor of the B building, where the fire was located, said Cheltenham Fire Marshal Joe O’Neill, who confirmed “the fire was set” and is under investigation. “The sprinkler system put out the fire almost immediately,” he said.

There was fire damage to the stairwell and smoke, soot and water damage to carpet in that area, O’Neill said. The building had previously been destroyed in a fire in October 2012.

Glenside Fire Company assisted by Edge Hill and LaMott fire companies responded to the scene to “make sure the hazard was addressed” and clear the smoke and odor of gasoline from the building, O’Neill said.

Pekin, IL – Sprinklers hold arson fire in check at popular restaurant and tavern

An employee of a popular restaurant and tavern allegedly asked another for advice on how to set it on fire — now he is charged with arson.

The combination of flaming stove burners and cooking oil, left atop the stove and spread on walls, caused minor damage to Goodfellas Pub & Pizza on Wednesday, though the business remained closed Monday.

That obvious evidence of arson and his own statements led police on Friday to arrest Scott Sutherland, 34, of Pekin. He was charged in bonding court Sunday and remained in custody Monday on $10,000 bond.

Sutherland’s alleged plan to destroy the business at 1414 N. Eighth St. “didn’t work out the way he thought it would,” Pekin Deputy Fire Chief Brian Cox said Monday. Cooking oil “is not very flammable.”

Sutherland, a bartender and cook, told a fellow employee sometime before the fire “about moving to Texas and burning the business down,” and asked her if she knew how to set it on fire, according to a prosecutor’s court affidavit.

Loud and electronic alarms set off by a sprinkler system alerted an officer in the area of the North Eighth Street Plaza, where Goodfellas is located, and firefighters to the smoldering flames in the business shortly before noon.

While other businesses in the plaza were evacuated, the sprinklers kept the fire “in check until we got there,” Cox said.  Firefighters discovered that all of the restaurant’s kitchen burners had been left on full blast, as well as its broiler and a fryer, the affidavit stated. A box of cooking oil sat on one of the burners, while more oil was smeared on walls where evidence of fire also was found.

Sutherland allegedly prepared what he thought would turn into a huge blaze more than six hours earlier, after the business closed for the night.

The restaurant’s security video equipment was missing, but video from another security system in the area recorded a man identified as Sutherland in the building between 4 and 5 a.m., “holding electronic equipment and pouring a substance on hallway walls,” the affidavit stated.  

Several employees said Sutherland was the last worker to leave Goodfellas the night before the fire and had keys to the business, the affidavit stated.

Sutherland told police Friday that he didn’t remember setting the fire and didn’t do so on purpose, but thought it might have been “a drunken mistake,” the affidavit stated.

He said he had returned to the business after closing to retrieve his apartment keys. He slipped on grease on the kitchen floor and bumped the stove, but didn’t think he turned it on.

 

Alhambra, IL – Arson fire at nursing home extinguished by sprinkler system

An Alhambra, Illinois woman was arrested for arson in connection to a fire at the Hitz Memorial Home, 201 Belle Street, that occurred Wednesday evening.

Firefighters responded to a call for a fire at the location at 9 p.m. The fire was contained to two inner rooms within the nursing home and extinguished by the facility’s fire sprinkler system. The damage to the two rooms was extensive. Other rooms suffered serious smoke and water damage.

One employee suffered minor smoke inhalation while clearing out patients. She was treated at the scene.  Ten nursing home patients were displaced from their rooms due to the fire. The home has made accommodations for them.

Around 10 p.m., the Illinois State Police received a phone call from a resident at the independent living portion of the Hitz Memorial Home, who reported she started the fire.

Police say Linda J. Braun, 67, admitted that she deliberately started the fire. She told police that she was angry over staff members trying to boss her around. Braun told the investigating deputy that she started the fire in an empty room and didn’t intend to hurt anyone. The fire was started in the nursing home, separate from the independent living facility Braun lived in.

Braun is currently held at the Madison County Jail. She is being held on a $250,000 bond.

Montreal, QC, Canada – Arson fire at medical clinic performing gender change surgeries is extinguished by sprinkler system

Police are seeking a male suspect in relation to a suspicious fire that targeted the Centre métropolitain de chirurgie in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough in Montreal, the only medical clinic in Canada that offers gender reassignment surgery.

Firefighters were alerted to a fire at the clinic at 8:44 p.m. Monday. About 20 firefighters rushed to the scene, but the fire was extinguished by an automatic sprinkler system. The fire was in an operating room, according to Montreal Fire Prevention Service spokesperson Mélanie Drouin. There were a few staff members and patients in the building at the time but they got out before firefighters arrived.

Drouin said damages are estimated by fire department officials at about $700,000. Medical equipment was damaged by water and smoke, she said. The clinic provides a variety of plastic surgeries and body surgeries, including breast augmentation or reduction, facelifts, liposuction and gender reassignment surgery (GRS).

The news spread quickly among members of the transgender community in Montreal and across Canada. Some are concerned that the fire will exacerbate the already lengthy waiting periods for gender reassignment surgery at the clinic. There is also speculation as to whether the clinic was targeted because it offers GRS.

“It would certainly seem relevant that the arson targeted the only clinic in Canada that currently provides GRS and other trans-related surgeries — especially at a time when things are becoming increasingly polarized on trans issues,” said Mercedes Allen, an advocate for transsexual and transgender communities in Alberta who writes on equality, human rights, LGBT and sexual minority issues in Canada.

“Something like this is certainly not going to help a community that already feels targeted. I also hope for the sake of the surgeons and staff that they too won’t have to start living in fear of violence. However, I’d also want to be careful not to be too quick to assume that this is hate-motivated,” Allen said.

Constable Manuel Couture, a Montreal police spokesperson, said investigators are aware of the services offered by the clinic, but had not, to his knowledge, classified the fire as a suspected hate crime by Tuesday afternoon.

“I don’t have any information right now to indicate that this was some kind of hate crime, but investigators are aware of that and as soon as they have the slightest suspicion that something could be a hate crime, they transfer it to the Hate Crimes Unit,” Couture said.

“This is devastating for trans health care,” Sophia Banks, a Montreal-based photographer and trans-rights advocate told the National Post. “People are freaking out” about wait times and how long the clinic will be closed. She said they’re also concerned about why this happened

City of Industry, CA – Arson fire at paper goods warehouse held in check by sprinkler system

An arson fire scorched an Industry warehouse packed with paper goods Wednesday, authorities said. The fire was first reported about 2:45 a.m. at a 55,000-square-foot warehouse in the 700 block of South 5th Avenue, Los Angeles County fire and sheriff’s officials said.

Though largely “kept in check” by the building’s sprinkler system, firefighters battled the stubborn blaze for nearly two hours until it was declared extinguished, Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Randall Wright said. No injuries were reported.

But firefighters determined the scene of the fire appeared suspicious and called in investigators from the Los Angeles County sheriff’s Arson-Explosives Detail, Wright said. “The cause is arson,” sheriff’s Detective Cynthia Valencia said. It appeared the arsonist spread gasoline around in the rear portion of the warehouse before lighting it on fire.

The intent of the arsonists appeared to be to destroy the building, but they were thwarted by the businesses’ fire-suppression system, she added. “(The) sprinkler system did a great job,” Valencia said.

Preliminary estimates of the damage caused to the warehouse, as well as the paper plates, paper cups and other similar items stored inside ranged between $300,000 and $500,000, the detective said.

A subleased portion of the warehouse, which is used as a packaging business, was unscathed, she said. Investigators continued seeking clues Thursday, and trying to determine who would want to torch the warehouse, Valencia said.

The arsonists were described only as two men, driving a sedan. “The owner is very cooperative,” Valencia said.  Firefighters remained at the scene until about noon, Wright said.

Any witnesses, or anyone who saw anything suspicious early Wednesday morning is asked to contact Detective Valencia at the sheriff’s Arson-Explosives Detail at 323-881-7500. Tips may also be submitted anonymously to L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.

Edmonton, AB, Canada – Arson fire at women’s shelter controlled with help from sprinkler system

A fire believed to have been deliberately set has shut down a downtown Edmonton emergency shelter and displaced more than 60 women who were staying there. Early Tuesday, firefighters responded to a fire on the fourth floor of a building that provides temporary shelter to homeless women.

When police arrived, they were told a lighter had been used to start a fire inside the building. Officers arrested a 33-year-old woman at the scene and charged her with arson. Police said the flames triggered a sprinkler. Water and smoke damaged several floors on one wing of the building.

Damage is estimated at $6,000. CBC has not been able to reach staff at the shelter to find out where clients are now staying and when the shelter will re-open.

Enderby, BC, Canada – Arson fire in school bathroom extinguished by sprinkler system

RCMP are continuing their investigation of a fire at AL Fortune Secondary School in Enderby earlier this month. Cpl. Kevin Kwast said the fire has been determined as arson.  “It looks like it was set with toilet paper and Post-it notes,” said Kwast, adding police want to interview a student, but could provide no more details because the student is a minor.

Enderby Fire Chief Kevin Alstad said the fire started in the girl’s washroom and was put out by the sprinkler system. “There was smoke damage throughout the building,” said Alstad. “The washroom was pretty much a write off.”

While the fire was limited to the washroom, smoke forced the evacuation of students and staff. The school was closed for two days before students could return to class