By Staff
April 19, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
What was thought to be more of an accident than anything else has been determined to have been a fire set by a youth playing with a lighter.
On Saturday April 18, 2015, at 4:30 pm, a grass fire was reported in the area of Dundas Street and the 407 highway in the City of Burlington. The Burlington Fire department responded and discovered that the grass fire had set a wooden hydro pole on fire which caused hydro wire to come down. There were some minor power outages in this area. Several residents of a townhouse complex adjacent to the fire on Headon Forest Drive had to leave their homes as a safety precaution for a short period of time until the fire was contained.
The Halton Regional Police Service investigated this matter and determined that a 14 year old youth was involved in starting the fire. The youth had been using a lighter to burn small items and this caused the dry grass to ignite and caused a fire that got rapidly out of control. The youth was arrested and later released from police custody and will be required to appear in the Ontario Youth Court of Justice at the Town of Milton in May 2015.
The youth is charged with one count of Arson, one count of Mischief to property of a value exceeding $5,000 and one count of Failing to comply with a youth probation order.
No details of the charged person will be released to the public as this disclosure is not permitted by the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Any person with additional information about this fire incident is requested to contact Detective Joe Barr of the Halton Regional Police Service (Burlington Criminal Investigations Bureau) at 905-825-4747 ext. 2385 or ext. 2315 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), or through the Internet at www.haltoncrimestoppers.com, or by texting “Tip201” with your message to 274637 (crimes.)
