Arsonist may be responsible

Arsonist may be responsible for blaze in 95-suite apartment
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Oct. 27, 2002

One person is dead and 21 households are being forced to temporarily relocate after a suspicious fire struck a three storey apartment building on Wilson Avenue in the early hours of Thursday night.
Firefighters were called the 85-suite apartment building near the Patterson SkyTrain station around 7:30 p.m.
After extinguishing the blaze they found an unidentified body in a stairwell.
If the fire proves to be deliberately set, the incident could become Burnaby's sixth homicide investigation of the year.
Debbie Clyne, the city's acting emergency co-ordinator, was working at the Burnaby Board of Trade safety fair just six blocks away when she was called out the scene.
Although 21 suites were uninhabitable because of problems reconnecting the fire alarms in one wing of the building, Clyne said most of those people had nearby family and friends or else insurance coverage.
The emergency assistance program provided temporary accommodations for 11 people who had nowhere else to go, TransLink provided a warm bus for people to sit in while waiting to reenter the building, and a tenant named Jim bought pizza for his neighbours while they waited to re-enter the building or find another place to stay.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Garry Begg said officers were still on the scene late Friday morning, and an autopsy was being conducted on the still unidentified body to determine the cause of death.
"Certainly the death is suspicious and we're investigating that," he said.