Police now investigating 24 arsons in south Edmonton
Posted November 25, 2024 2:31 pm.
Last Updated November 26, 2024 10:15 am.
Police are investigating 24 arsons across multiple neighbourhoods in southwest and southeast Edmonton.
The Edmonton Police Service says it’s probing fires in Allendale, Belgravia, Ritchie, King Edward Park, Holyrood and Strathearn this year – in occupied homes, unoccupied new homes, and detached garages and sheds.
“We have small clusters of events in a number of different neighbourhoods. So it’s not isolated in any one or two neighbourhoods,” Insp. Shannon Dechamplain with the EPS Investigations Branch said.
“While we are unsure if these events are related beyond proximity, we have been able to identify several persons of interests.”
The arsons are not believed to be connected to Project Gaslight or a series of Bitcoin-extortion blazes in Holyrood and Cloverdale from September and October.
“The indications are that there is no connection,” Dechamplain added.
On Nov. 8, Edmonton police said officers were investigating seven arsons in south Edmonton dating back to May.
At a press conference Monday, police said they “expanded the scope of their investigation.” The now 24 arsons being investigated all happened “earlier in the year,” except for one that occurred after Nov. 8 – since the last police update on the matter.
“Upon further review of all of the arsons going back to the beginning of the year, we’ve identified that there are a number of additional arsons that are all in these communities,” Dechamplain said. “Like I said, we’ve got a few clusters, so it’s causing us to have a closer look to see what’s going on in those communities.”
EPS says officers are continuing to patrol the affected communities.
“We are doing a lot more proactive patrols, not just by the patrol members that work in those areas, in the southeast and southwest division, we also have our disruption teams crime suppression teams,” Dechamplain said. “Our investigative team has been out in the area, they’re talking to the residents as well.”
When asked about a perceived rise in arson crime, Edmonton police data suggest the city is “on par with the same amount of arsons that we’ve had in the past year,” Dechamplain told reporters.
