A 50-year-old Victoria man has been arrested in connection with three suspicious fires in James Bay last month.
The man was arrested Friday by patrol officers, who were working with detectives from the Victoria police major crime unit and officers from its strike force.
He is expected to appear in court today.
At 3 a.m. on May 14, officers were called to a fire in a construction bin near the intersection of Michigan and Powell streets.
The Victoria Fire Department was already at the scene and extinguished the fire. The construction bin sustained significant fire damage, said Victoria police Const. Cam MacIntyre.
Five minutes later, the officers were alerted to a second suspicious fire in the 500 block of Government Street.
Officers saw that the staircase of a heritage building was on fire. The officers were able to contain the fire with an extinguisher until the fire department arrived and put out the flames.
Five minutes after that, the officers received a report of a fire in the 200 block of Menzies Street.
When they arrived, the officers found a dumpster fully engulfed in flames. The fire had spread to a wooden fence.
Again, a police officer contained the blaze with a fire extinguisher. The Victoria Fire Department arrived and put out the fire.
No one was injured, but significant property damage occurred, said MacIntyre.
