Man arrested in West Prince Halloween fire

RCMP arrested a man early Thursday morning in connection with a fire at an empty house in western P.E.I.

Corp. Lisa Jones said a member of the Tignish Fire Department happened to be passing the burning house in Nail Pond at 4:30 a.m. and saw the man. He was turned over to RCMP. Jones said charges are being recommended.

It was one of five suspected arsons in West Prince overnight, including one in Tignish, two in St. Lawrence and one in Palmer Road, involving a second empty house, a trailer, a shed, and a dumpster. All of the locations are within about 20 minutes of each other.

'We get a lot of fires'

Jones said RCMP are investigating if the man may have been connected to the other fires, or whether other people might have been involved.

Halloween is a busy time for arson fires in West Prince, Jones said, and arrests are rare.

"We get a lot of fires and we don't solve a lot of them up here, which is unfortunate. The fact that we actually have one, that's good," she said.

"We're just trying to prevent it from happening again. If we catch them this year maybe next year they may not do it. That's the goal."

Other parts of the province reported a quiet Halloween, with just a couple of incidents where eggs were thrown.

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