A Nicol Street house severely damaged by an accidental blaze several months ago was set on fire again late Monday.
Fire crews were called to a house in the 600 block of Nicol Street shortly after 11 p.m.
The fire, which investigators believe was intentionally set, was in the living room on the main floor of the house, said Doug Bell, chief fire investigator with Nanaimo Fire Rescue.
In May, a bedroom fire caused by smoking materials heavily damaged the house and displaced two renters in the main suite and three tenants in the basement suite.
Since then, it has remained vacant and boarded up. When crews attended on Monday evening, some boards had been removed and the front door was open.
“It’s been empty for months,” said Bell. “This time it was a small fire. It was hard to tell what damage was from the previous fire and what was from this fire. The building was probably already a writeoff.”
Fire officials will work with the owner to prevent this from happening again.