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Written by RielWelcome, friends, explorers, and weary internet travelers! This is the unofficial local newspaper for Riversdale an upcoming area of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Arsonist?
In the late hours of August 7th, firefighters put out a fire across from the street from the Landa Autobody building located on the 200 block of Avenue C. South. Two motor vehicles in need of autobody work to become road worthy had been ablaze.
There are a lot of vehicles in need of autobody work to become roadworthy located on the lot were the two vehicles had been burning. Motor vehicles that aren't electric have fuel tanks that often contain gasoline. Gasoline is flammable and volatile. Things could have been far worse.
The whole lot could have been ablaze.
If the whole lot were ablaze, nearby buildings might have been ignited. Two of those buildings, a row house and a new housing development, have a lot of inhabitants. There are also homes with families.
This wasn't the first time this year firefighters were in the vicinity. Just a few weeks previous, firefighters put out a blaze from the back alley between Avenues E and F, also on the 200 block.
A shed behind a home on Avenue F., the home itself abandoned after a fire and believed to contain asbestos, had been on fire. So too was a boundary fence and so too the bottom of a power pole located neaer the shed.
Again the firefighters did a great job. Again things could have been a lot worse.
While the shed behind the vacant home was destroyed, a new garage in the next lot was saved. Most fortunately, the power pole fire was put out long before the power pole toppled.
Had the fire toppled the power pole there could have been a lot of sparks. These sparks could have ignited other properties.
Several months before this fire, firefighters were also in this back alley fighting a garage fire practically across the alley from where this fire burned. The garage was destroyed and the property owner is going to have to rebuild it. He is suspicious as to the garage fire's origins, the more so because of the subsequent fire across the alley way.
Also, within the year, and in this same alley, firefighters were called upon to put out a fence fire. Only 18 square feet or so of fence had to be replaced. Again things could have been worse. A nearby garage might have ignited had firefighters not been on the scene and extinguished the fires so quickly. Had the garage gone up, it could have ignited adjacent homes -- with families.
Are the police actively searching for an arsonist? Are they making the search a high priority? Will there be an arrest before someone burns to death?
Back around the turn of the millennium, a mother and her two small children perished in a fatal fire on Avenue E. The cause of this tragic loss of human life was supposed to have been a candle that was't extinguished before the family went to sleep.
It would be a real shame if another family in the neighbourhood were to suffer the devastation of a fatal fire. The more so if the fire were found to have been caused by arson and that better policing might have led to the arrest of the arsonist before he or she managed to cause harm that even the arsonist never intended.
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Arsonists usually commit their acts because they are angry or stressed. Some do so for arousal. Treatment is through cognitive behavioural therapy. If you are reading this and are responsible for the fires, or are the parent of a child you believe may be responsible for the fires, you should seek out the services of a cognitive behaviour therapist immediately before there is a loss of human life.
