UPDATED: Trail fire confirmed suspicious; house unoccupied
By Kyra Hoggan
Update:
A fire in Trail Sunday night/Monday morning that destroyed three houses and three vehicles is being treated as suspicious, RCMP Sgt. Rob Hawton confirmed today.
He also confirmed that the house where the fire started, at 1557 Pine Ave., was unoccuped at the time.
“The center house where the fire started had been vacant for some time and the owner lives out of town,” Hawton said. “The occupants of the other two houses escaped with no injuries.
“The cause of the fire is being treated as suspicious and the investigation is continuing, with the assistance of Kootenay Boundary Regional Detachment General Investigation Section and the Trail Crime Reduction Unit,” he added. “Anyone with any information is requested to contact Trail & Greater District Detachment or Crime Stoppers.”
Previous story (9:15 a.m., Sept. 2:
A massive blaze in Trail last night destroyed three homes and three vehicles, but no one was injured, according to Kootenay Boundary Regional Fire Rescue Cpt. Jason Milne.
“Last night, at approximately 2 a.m., we responded to a fully involved structure fire on Pine Avenue near Topping,” he said. “When we arrived on scene, one house was completely consumed.
“A second house, on the north side, had caught fire and was about a quarter consumed. Also, a house on the south side was involved as well.”
It took companies from Trail, Warfield and Montrose until about 7 a.m. to control the fire, which ultimately gutted the middle house, and caused, “extensive damage” to the two adjacent homes.
“We can’t confirm the middle house was occupied, but the other two houses were,” Milne said. “All occupants were evacuated safely.”
He said it’s believed the fire began in the middle house, but this is not confirmed.
“It’s being treated as suspicious, until or unless we can confirm otherwise.”
Milne was unable to provide a damage estimate at the time of this interview, but said it certainly would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, saying the fire caused, “substantial losses”.
He said as many as 50 people called the fire in to 9-1-1.
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