'Malicious mischief'
Firebugs keep fighters busy, anxious in Rankin Inlet
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
KANGIQLINIQ/RANKIN INLET
A series of deliberately lit fires over several days has Rankin Inlet Fire Chief Mark Wyatt hoping the culprits are apprehended before things spiral further of control.
Things could have been a lot worse if this deliberately lit fire reached the nearby trailer according to Rankin Inlet Fire Chief Mark Wyatt. - photo courtesy of Mark Wyatt
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Wyatt said the department has some leads on kids and teens in the areas where the fires were lit.
"The RCMP are following up on those leads now and I'm hoping they catch somebody, but it's hard to say," he said.
According to Wyatt, there have been five fire incidents, or attempted fire incidents, during the past week.
"Most of them are quite small," he said. "There was a grass fire started near a shed up in Itivia, but a resident stomped that out; and there was a grass fire and a garbage box fire near a trailer just east of Itivia, and that was the biggest incident.
"Those two were burning at the same time. We went up to the grass fire and then saw the other one starting down below, so that was a bit of an issue.
"Had we been a few minutes later getting there, the back door of the trailer would have burned through and we would have had a much bigger fire with that 40-foot trailer, so it can be pretty dangerous when people start toying around with this type of thing."
Wyatt said he hopes the situation doesn't escalate further.
"The fire that was started right in front of somebody's shed -- who had two ATVs and everything else in there -- had that gone on undetected and caught the shed on fire, somebody would have lost an awful lot of property inside that shed," he said.
"Right now it's just malicious mischief but I don't want to see it get to be anything more.
"I'm hoping the RCMP can identify some suspects and try to rectify the situation."
Wyatt said this is the first series of deliberately lit fires he's encountered as Rankin fire chief, but they're known to happen in the community.
He said some of the firefighters have begun to almost expect it in the summer.
"This is a really sad thing for this community," he said.
"Whether it's kids or young adults, or whoever's doing it, it's just nonsensical behaviour, really, and it should stop."
