Firebug Vandals hit Lakecity

Williams Lake Boys and Girls Club executive director Monica Johnson and youth services worker Troy Forcier survey the damage to the organization’s bus Monday morning. The bus was completely destroyed by arsonists
By Erin Hitchcock - Williams Lake Tribune

Published: November 25, 2008 8:00 AM
City fire department called to five different fires Sunday night and early Monday morning

Kids at the Boys and Girls Club have lost their bus after it was completely destroyed in a fire believed to have been caused by arsonists.

A string of suspicious fires kept the Williams Lake Fire Department busy Sunday night and early Monday morning when they attended five separate fires, most of which involved molotov cocktails.

Williams Lake Fire Department chief Randy Isfeld says the first suspicious fire began at 5:26 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23 on the hill by Barnard Street and Seventh Avenue.

“That one didn’t go very far. A passerby, in fact, stamped it out,” Isfeld says, adding that a beer bottle with a wick, a molotov cocktail, was found at the scene.

“We’ve had a series of fires that are suspicious, to say the least.”

Just after midnight, a witness reported that he saw what he thought was a fire flash up between two vehicles in the 400 block of Mackenzie Avenue South.

“That was also a beer bottle, a molotov cocktail thrown between two trucks,” he says. “No damage done there at all, just the molotov cocktail itself.”

Then at 2:33 a.m., the fire department was called to the Boys and Girls Club where its van, which was parked in a secured and gated back parking lot, was on fire.

“That is suspicious as well,” he says, adding that unlike the other fires, a jerry can, instead of a beer bottle, was found nearby.

While the fire department was extinguishing that fire, it received another call at 2:56 a.m. that there was a grass fire on a small hillside by Town Taxi on MacKenzie Avenue.

While still attending the fire at the Boys and Girls Club, the department received another call, at about 3:47 a.m. In that incident, someone had used a molotov cocktail at the Cariboo Memorial Complex parking lot entrance off of Proctor Street.

“Somebody had busted a beer bottle there with what appeared to be gasoline or something in it,” Isfeld said, adding that it’s still unknown what type of material was used in the molotov cocktails.

No suspect has yet been caught and police are still investigating, Isfeld says.

“One can assume that they may be related,” he says, adding that aside from the burned bus at the Boys and Girls Club, little property sustained fire damage in the other incidents.

The Boys and Girls Club bus still sat in the back lot, torched, Monday afternoon.

Monica Johnson, the executive director for the Boys and Girls Club, says watching the bus burn while the Williams Lake Fire Department extinguished the flames was disheartening.

“We’re just really happy no one was hurt,” Johnson says, adding that the 139 Children’s Charity donated the bus to the Boys and Girls Club last March.

She believes the arsonists used fuel to set the bus on fire, as a jerry can was found at the scene.

Troy Forcier, youth services worker for the Boys and Girls Club, says he received a call at about 3 a.m. that the bus was on fire.

“It was one of five arsons from last night,” he says.

“We have no idea who could have done it or anything like that. It’s completely destroyed. We can’t even tow it. It has no tires. They’re just melted.”

He says while insurance will cover the damage, the bus will be hard to replace.

“I know some of the kids are going to be devastated because they loved that bus,” he says, adding that the bus used to be able to transport about 20 kids and made the club’s biking program much better this year.

“We hadn’t had a bus before, so we were able to do some of the trails that were further out,” he says. “We did trips to Barkerville and Farwell Canyon.”

Fortunately, there are few trips to be made at this time of year, but there are plans to take the kids to the ski hills later this year.

“I’m just glad it didn’t burn our building,” he says.

“It still sucks because we spent $3,000 last week on the engine, and $1,000 a couple weeks before that.”

The van was parked in the far corner of the secured lot, where it’s normally kept in case someone ever tried to set it on fire.

“We thought, ‘Well, if anybody ever torches it, at least it will be away from the building,’” he says. “I didn’t think that would ever materialize.”

In addition to Town Taxi’s hillside being set on fire, one of the company’s taxis was also damaged. Its windshield was hit with what is believed to have been a beer bottle, says Mona Nieber, co-owner of Town Taxi.

“They burned our banks and they hit one of our taxis,” she says. “They burned all the grass and stuff. It’s a fair good chunk of the property. It’s all burnt.”

She says the building and the cars weren’t set on fire, but the one car sustained minor damage from being hit with the bottle.

“It hit the windshield and it hit another part of it too, but it’s just minor. Nobody was hurt.”