Ennis Mond, Nanaimo Fire Rescue fire prevention officer, had his work cut out for him when he showed up a the office Monday morning to find eight fires over the weekend waiting to be investigated.
All fires appeared to be human-caused and minor, except for a car fire that started shortly before 7 a.m. Monday on the 100 block of O’Hara Place. Mond deemed the fire suspicious.
“I’m quite confident somebody set the fire,” Mond said.
Firefighters responded to four fires Saturday night. The first was in a trash can on the 3000 block of Barons Road shortly after 6 p.m., which was chalked up to poorly discarded smoking materials.
The second blaze was a brush fire that ignited on the 2200 block of Boxwood Road at about 10 p.m. It was possibly sparked by a transient person camping in the area, Mond said.
Two fires near the E&N Trail happened a few hours later. One on the 300 block of Cypress Street started shortly after 10 p.m. when someone allegedly lit a jacket on fire. A third fire on the 800 block of St. Andrews Street happened at about the same time when cardboard boxes were set alight on the road. Mond is looking at the possibility one person lit both fires.
Shortly before 2 a.m. Monday a tire was lit on fire on the road in the 800 block of Georgia Avenue. Two fires in planters Monday morning were attributed to careless smokers.