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Saskatoon is continuing to deal with a rash of intentionally set fires within the community.
This year to date, the Saskatoon Fire Department has responded to a total of 170 fires, compared to 171 in 2019 at this time. Those numbers may not jump off the page, but the number of intentionally set fires has increased drastically.
Saskatoon Fire Department Assistant Chief Wayne Rodger, told 650 CKOM that incendiary fires have nearly doubled compared to 2019’s numbers.
At this time last year, the department responded to 33 incendiary fires.
In 2020?
It has responded to 65 to date.
“Although it takes some time in figuring some of these out, we do see that as an interesting change in how fires are starting here in Saskatoon,” Rodger explained.
The blazes within Saskatoon have continued to climb throughout the year, with many targetting boarded up, vacant homes.
Rodger said since a similar rash of fires in March where 10 homes in Saskatoon’s core neighbourhoods were destroyed by suspicious fires, including eight boarded-up, vacant homes, not much has changed when it comes to the reasons for the intentionally set fires.
“(The factors) are pretty broad. They’re wide-ranging from revenge, there’s fraud, there’s various motives for wanting to intentionally set a fire,” he explained.
Rodger said it’s nearly impossible to figure out these factors unless Saskatoon police are able to apprehend the suspects and hear the reasonings through the justice system.
He wouldn’t point the finger at a single person, or group, but didn’t doubt the idea, either.
“Whether there is a tie to these, remains to be seen. We won’t discount it,” Rodger said.
This past weekend in Saskatoon was another busy one for fire crews.
“Since Friday last week, we’ve had five (significant) fires that we’ve responded to, of which four of them were deemed incendiary by the fire investigators,” he stated.
The fires were quite spread out as well, making geographical trends of the intentionally set blazes hard to use as a factor.
From Friday to Sunday, the five fires that Rodger refers to happened at Dr. John G. Egnatoff School Friday night, the 400 block of Ave. G South Saturday morning, 500 block of Queen Street Saturday night, along with two fires Sunday afternoon on the 100 block of Ave. Q South Sunday and Ave. R South.
Rodger said Saskatonians should keep an eye out for suspicious activity, and eliminate the opportunity of the crimes by moving anything that can be deemed high-risk to a lower-risk area.
That includes moving in garbage bins after pickup, dumpsters out of alleys and debris away from high-traffic areas.
If you see anything suspicious, contact Saskatoon police. If it is a fire, and a dangerous situation, call 911.