Downtown Squamish was again the scene of an early morning blaze last weekend, exactly one week after fire consumed a vacant building connected to The Chieftain Hotel.
Squamish Fire Rescue received a call of a fire at a vacant single family home in the 38000 block of Sixth Avenue on Sunday (May 30) at 2:30 a.m. Three fire engines, ladders trucks and 27 firefighters responded to douse the blaze.
The fire gutted the house, which was empty at the time. However evidence is leading investigators to believe the house may have recently been illegally occupied.
"A person or persons had forced entry, so the premises was being used by squatters or a squatter," said Fire Rescue firefighter Bob Fulton.
Fulton said the investigation hasn't yet led to a conclusion of arson, however signs of forced entry to the locked structure indicated suspicious activities not condoned by property owners.
"We're thinking possibly these are accidental fires due to smoking or cooking in these unoccupied buildings. Although we can't rule out that they're deliberately set fires until we have more evidence."
Fulton is asking the public to be aware of suspicious activities in their neighbourhood.
"We can't determine for sure how it started, but we had two major structure fires in two weeks in unoccupied buildings," he said.
"So we'd like to remind people to be aware of what's happening in their neighbourhoods and to report any suspicious or unusual happenings to the RCMP."
Anyone who may have seen anything suspicious around the Sixth Avenue area late Saturday night or early Sunday morning is asked to contact the RCMP at 604 892-6100 or Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.
