Man arrested after fire destroys mobile homes near Cultus Lake
RCMP say the fire is suspicious and is being investigated as arson
RCMP say a 42-year-old man is in custody in connection with a fire that destroyed two trailers and damaged a third at a mobile home park near Cultus Lake early Thursday.
Cpl. Mike Rail with the Upper Fraser Valley RCMP detachment said the fire started at the Cultus Lake Village mobile home park in the 3900 block of Columbia Valley Road around 12:30 a.m. PT.
He said investigators located the suspect and arrested him a short time later. He remains in custody, but no charges have yet been laid.
Cpl. Rail says police consider the fire suspicious and are investigating the incident as an arson.
A man who lives nearby said he pulled residents of one of the burning mobile homes to safety.
Jordan Colley said he noticed one of the properties had caught fire in the park.
He said he had to wake up a man and woman inside when it started to burn. He said he had to pull the woman, who uses a wheelchair, out of the house as the flames spread.
When the fire jumped to the neighbouring home, Colley said he woke up the two people living there, too. Then he woke up his own family living nearby.
"You're thinking about your neighbours, you're thinking about your kids ... you help out when you can," he said.
"Look at the house, it's gone," he said, referring to the twisted, blackened remnants of the homes.
Additional firefighters from Chilliwack were called in to help douse the flames. It took hours to subdue the fire, which was hot enough to melt most of a white van parked nearby.
No injuries were reported.