Victoria police are investigating five separate fires that were lit downtown early Wednesday morning, and arson is suspected.
Victoria Fire Department Deputy Chief Dan Atkinson said it was the largest cluster of fires in a short period that firefighters had seen in some time. Four of the five fires were in garbage cans, and the fifth was at Mustard Seed on Queens Street, where garbage and the back of the building were burned. Only the exterior of the building caught fire.
Cleanup continues outside the @MustardSeedVic after a suspicious fire broke out Tuesday night. Possible arson #yyj #VictoriaBC pic.twitter.com/saDwLmvcMc
— Victoria News (@VictoriaNews) November 9, 2017
Two engines, a ladder, rescue, and command vehicle attended the scene of the Mustard Seed fire around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Atkinson said the department was tied up putting out these fires from midnight to around 3 a.m. As of yet, the cause is uncertain.
“Any time there’s a fire that occurs absent of a known accident ignition point … if a fire simply starts in the middle of nowhere, it begs the question how it started, and usually the answer to that question is that it was human contributed,” Atkinson said.
