Two early morning suspicious fires in two days have prompted Nanaimo Fire Rescue investigators to call in the RCMP.
The fires have been set, allegedly, on the front porch of a house at 650 Milton St.
The most recent incident happened at about 12:30 a.m. Thursday.
Neither that fire nor one that occurred shortly after 6 a.m. Wednesday caused much damage, but could have had serious consequences for four people living in the home had they not been detected early.
“[The fire] was set, probably by a homeless person sheltering under the deck, burning recycled materials that were left out on the deck – newspapers and stuff,” Alan Millbank, Nanaimo Fire Rescue fire prevention officer, said Wednesday.
Fire damage in both instances has been limited to a burned deck and railing boards, but four residents were in the home at the time of Wednesday’s fire.
“It was extinguished before it reached the inside of the structure,” Millbank said.
No one was injured by either fire and there was no fire or smoke damage to the interior of the house, which is still habitable.
Kevin Lillingston, fire prevention officer who investigated Thursday’s fire, was unable to comment as the investigation was being turned over to the RCMP and had just spoken with a police investigator.
The second fire caused less damage than the first, said Capt. Ennis Mond, head of Nanaimo Fire Rescue’s Fire and Loss Prevention Division.
“It’s less serious, but it’s odd,” Mond said. “We’re just trying to get the police there.”