Fourth event where arson suspected in four months
M’CHIGEENG—The suspected cause of another structure fire in M’Chigeeng First Nation last week is suspected to have been caused by arson.
“There was a fire last night (Thursday) in the community, at an abandoned house on Lakeview Drive at Highway 551,” said Andrew Corbiere, acting fire prevention officer for the M’Chigeeng Fire Department. “There was no one inside the house and no one was hurt.”
Mr. Corbiere said the cause of the fire is suspected to be arson, “but we have called the Ontario Fire Marshal and it will be up to them to confirm this.”
One of the reasons the fire is suspected to have been caused by arson is that there was no hydro service in the house.
The M’Chigeeng Fire Department had called in the Central Manitoulin Fire Department for back up assistance in putting out the blaze.
“We actually got two calls about the fire at the same location,” said Mr. Corbiere. “The first call came in at 10 pm, and we were there fighting the fire until about 12 (midnight). Then we were called back to the location at about 2:30 am and were on the scene until about 3:30 am putting out the fire.”
As was reported in last week’s edition of The Expositor a fire that took place two weeks ago was also suspected of being caused by arson, destroyed a vacant building in M’Chigeeng that belonged to Richard and Miriam Williams, that the Williams family had hoped to turn into an abattoir. The latest blaze last week means there have been four suspicious structure fires in the community over the past four months.
