Boat fire in Armstrong could be connected to string of Vernon arsons

VERNON – Police are investigating whether a suspicious boat fire in Armstrong is connected to a rash of suspected arsons in the Vernon area.

Emergency personnel were dispatched to 143 L & A Crossing Rd. Saturday around 10:40 p.m. for a report of a boat on fire.

“One boat was completely involved and destroyed and a second boat nearby sustained some heat damage,” RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk says.

Because there were no batteries or mechanical ignition sources, investigators are treating the incident as suspicious.

This is the first suspicious fire being investigated outside the Vernon area.

“We have to look at it. We have to consider it could be part of the parcel,” Molendyk says.

The blaze was put out by the Armstrong Fire Department and there is no estimate yet on the damages. 

Police have made two arrests in relation to a fire set behind AJ’s Pets & Things in Vernon.

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To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infotelnews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infotelnews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

—This story was edited at 1:30 p.m. to clarify the boat fire occurred on L&A Crossing Road, not L&A Cross Road, and to add an arson map.