A man rides his bicycle along the seawall in Stanley Park with a backdrop of downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, September 19, 2011.Rafal Gerszak/The Globe and Mail
Vancouver Police and parks staff are once again boosting security in Stanley Park after a second deliberately set fire in less than a week raged last night.
"We will have uniformed and non-uniformed officers in and around the area at all manners of the day and night," said police spokesman Constable Lindsey Houghton.
The stepped-up security measures are coming after the city's emergency services responded Tuesday to calls of a fire near the Vancouver Police Mounted Unit and Triple A Horse and Carriage stables shortly before 10:30 PT. Fire crews discovered one Parks Board vehicle engulfed in flames. The fire started spreading to a nearby shed.
Crews extinguished the blaze before it reached the stables located about 50 feet away. The stables house approximately 18 horses.
"There was the very real potential that we could have lost the entire Vancouver Police Mounted Unit horses," said Constable Houghton.
The fire destroyed one vehicle, damaged two others, and left a tool shed with burn damage, he said.
This is the second suspected case of arson in Stanley Park in less than a week. Earlier, another suspicious fire destroyed the replica station house at the park's miniature train attraction.
Police and parks staff increased foot patrols after the first fire, but it did not stop last night's attack. Starting immediately, even more security will be present in the park, said Constable Houghton.
Police have not found any connection between the two fires, said Constable Houghton. They are continuing the high-priority investigation.
With files from The Canadian Press.