Christine Grimard
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 3, 2007

SACHS HARBOUR - A 35-year-old resident was charged with arson after a house and ATV were set on fire Aug. 27 in Sachs Harbour.

Tony Dean Lucas has been charged with arson, careless use of a firearm and possession of an unregistered firearm.

The RCMP received calls from the community in the early morning hours of Aug. 27 that a man was threatening to set personal property on fire.

The Sachs Harbour fire department did not initially respond to the fire, upon hearing the gunfire, according to RCMP reports.

Calls from the community were made to the Inuvik RCMP at around 12:30 a.m., and officers arrived on scene four to five hours later, according to Staff Sgt. Mark T. Crowther. He said that the suspect had turned in the firearm upon hearing the RCMP were on their way.

Three RCMP officers took the first available flight to Sachs Harbour on Aklak Air, and searched for the suspect, whom they found and arrested around 5 a.m.

Charges were laid the following day.

"The matter is now before the courts with fairly serious charges," said Crowther. "We're talking arson here."

Sachs Harbour does not have its own RCMP detachment, but is scheduled to receive one, along with Wrigley and Gameti. A detachment could be dedicated to Sachs Harbour as soon as this fall.

With construction of the detachment building and permanent residence for the two members not expected to be completed until December 2009 at the earliest, the officers will move between Sachs Harbour and Inuvik, in the meantime.

While Crowther is optimistic about putting a detachment in the community, he said having a detachment would not prevent occurrences like this one.

"Incidents like this happen even where we have a detachment," said Crowther. "These things happen with or without us."

While having a detachment in the community would help reduce response time, Crowther said the officers were able to respond quickly to this incident.

"These are things you don't go rushing into," he said.

Lucas is set to appear at Territorial Court in Inuvik on Oct. 22.