THUNDER BAY - Thunder Bay Fire Investigators are investigating possible arson and vandalism following three separate garage fires within two hours of each other on Wednesday morning.
The first occurred at 1:12 a.m. on South Brodie Street, the second at 2:29 a.m. on South Archibald Street, and the third at 3:04 a.m. also on South Archibald Street.
All three of the garages were damaged extensively, although no injuries were reported.
Timothy Irish, a fire investigator with the office of the fire marshal, described the matters as suspicious.
"When you have three fire events within in area that is closely related, it is obviously of concern."
The earliest South Archibald Street fire completely destroyed a playhouse and melted the siding of Jason Hart's home.
"The kids came in the house saying the backyard was on fire," Hart said. "It was all red. When I ran through the kitchen all I saw was red. It was pretty intense."
Fire Rescue had just responded to the Brodie Street fire an hour before, and Hart said as soon as he evacuated his family out of the house, firefighters were on scene.
Hart said as the crew was "wrapping up," they were called to the third fire.
Hart described the initial panic as surreal, but quickly got both his family and pets out safely.
"We we're panicked, but [we knew] the fire was not in the house, and we needed to get out."
After numerous attack lines were utilized to knock down the fire and extinguish it, Hart learned that his playground had been completely destroyed, and some of the siding of his house had melted.
Hart also told tbnewswatch.com that his son found a blue lighter beside the destroyed playground, which he claims wasn't there prior.
"When I heard there was [a fire] two streets down, I just thought: 'Who does this?'" asked Hart. "It's messed up."
