Fire hall break-in brings 'despair'
'Someone could have been hurt or injured of worse,' says deputy fire chief
Joseph Tunney
Northern News Services
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Many in the community feel shaken after the RCMP responded to a reported break and enter at the Fort Simpson fire hall on July 15, said the deputy fire chief.
Despite having the keys, whomever broke into the fire hall July 15 would have been prevented from taking the emergency vehicles said deputy fire chief Pat Rowe. There are actually two systems required to get the vehicles started, he said. - Joseph Tunney/NNSL photo
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"The cowardly act of that individual really put everybody in Fort Simpson a little bit in despair," said Pat Rowe.
RCMP responded to the call around 7 a.m. and found that "culprits rummaged through most of the fire hall, damaging a flat-screen television. A golf cart was stolen along with a number of water bottles and soft drinks," stated an RCMP news release.
On top of the stolen golf cart owned by the deputy fire chief, which has since been located smashed up over the side of a river bank, the owner said the culprit also stole keys to one of the emergency vehicles, not realizing there are safety features preventing the vehicle from starting using a key alone.
Const. Akira Currier said he believed the trespasser may have been looking for alcohol but said that is only speculation.
He also said the fire hall keeps a back-up copy of the emergency vehicle's key, meaning the fire hall still has access to it. Pat later said the keys had been found in the fire hall."
"It is people like the ones who did this crime that give Fort Simpson a bad name," wrote Coun. Michael Rowe in a Facebook post.
"They do not care what or who they hurt in the process of their moronic actions and it leaves us all looking bad in the eyes of the rest of the world."
Later at a village council meeting, the councillor thanked all the RCMP and the community members who came together in the last week to support the fire hall and the recovery of the stolen golf cart.
The hardest part of the ordeal for the deputy fire chief is trying to understand the mentality that goes into such an act.
"That an individual would do that," he said. "Someone could have been hurt or injured of worse."
He said the RCMP had made one arrest of man in relation to the break-in.
Police describe him as being either 19 or 20 years of age and say he is from Fort Simpson.
However, Currier said the RCMP are looking into whether there were accomplices to this crime.
The deputy fire chief said the fire hall does not have any video surveillance.
"But that's something we're going to have to look at after this," the deputy fire chief said.
The investigation is ongoing and RCMP encourages anybody who has additional information about the break in to contact them.
