Christine Grimard
Northern News Services
Wednesday, April 25, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - RCMP are investigating two cases of arson reported last week.

On April 17 at approximately 2:30 a.m. residents of a house on Williams Ave. woke up to find a small fire on their front porch.

Yellowknife fire department attended the scene and the fire was extinguished.

While there are no suspects or witnesses, RCMP Const. Roxanne Dreilich said the nature of the fire is suspicious and police are considering it as arson.

"There's no reason why that should have happened," said Dreilich about the fire. The porch and the siding of the house suffered moderate damage.

A second case of arson was reported April 19 at 1 p.m. in the elevator of the Yellowknife Public Library.

Sam Gamble, the Centre Square Mall property manager, said that while the elevator is still functioning, damage is estimated at over $1,000 as the carpet will need to be replaced.

Police are investigating, using video surveillance tapes to identify the arsonist. Gamble said the person stood in front of at least one of the surveillance cameras located in the hallway and inside the elevator.

At this point, Dreilich said that while there is no evidence indicating the two fires are related, it is suspicious that they both occurred the same week.

"The simple fact we had two arsons in one week is suspicious in nature in and of itself," said Dreilich.

She said police are not connecting these fires to a string of arsons that happened last year.