Firebug At Work?

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

A suspicious grassfire damages Brad Hall and Patti Hinter's mobile home

Prince George, B.C. -  Several residents living in the Lombardy Trailer Park say they will not be sleeping easy tonight...a few have their garden hoses at the ready, should they need to put out a fire...

Shortly before 5pm yesterday afternoon, Prince George Fire/Rescue was called to four suspicious grassfires in and around the trailer park at 2188 Norwood Street.  Since then, crews have been back to deal with two other incidents...

As they watched the mop up after the grassfires, Patti Hinter and her husband, Brad Hall, spoke with Opinion250News about their serious concerns with the greenbelt behind their home -- they said the dense, dry bush seems to attract firebugs and they're worried the situation is going to end in disaster.  Just five short hours later, their worst fear was realized -- their home was set ablaze.

Hinter says they were watching a movie around 10:30pm last night when they heard people yelling.  She says she looked out her window and saw flames leaping in the grass near the skirting of her home.

She credits the amazing response time of Fire/Rescue with saving her home, "Thank God, they were so fast or it all would have gone up because it started to go up in the top (of the mobile home) and if it had got up in there, it just would have went right through.  It would have been no more."

Hinter says she's sick with relief that her 19-year-old daughter was not home at the time of the fire, as she has the back bedroom where the flames destroyed the siding.  A shed just behind the trailer is a charred ruin.  Prince George Fire/Rescue estimates the total damage at $15-thousand dollars.

Hinter and Hall have spent the day pulling the remains of their belongings out of the shed, sorting through boxes of pictures they had been storing while working on renovations in their home. 

They were also on-hand to witness fire crews arrive at the park, for a third time, this afternoon for a fire in another trailer. 

The owner of the trailer, who did not want to give his name until after he's spoken with RCMP, says the blaze apparently broke out in the back bedroom. 

He says his tenant managed to get out safely and did not suffer any injuries, but he says he's been told there's smoke damage.

A nearby resident says she saw smoke billowing from a vent at the back of the trailer and that's where fire crews put their hose.  She says she is keeping her eyes and ears open, for fear of any more incidents.

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