The mayor of a small municipality south of Montreal said he has requested a meeting with the province’s Domestic Security Minister after a series of suspicious fires targeting small businesses.
“A fourth fire has occurred on Lambton Street — and it is now the fifth fire in our region in only a few months. This situation is unacceptable,” Ormstown Mayor Philippe Besombes wrote in a social media post on Sunday morning.
His post comes hours after a pizzeria on Lambton Street was burned to the ground in what provincial police described as a case of suspected arson.
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) said they received a call at 2:30 a.m. Sunday and responded to Sara Pizza. SQ spokesperson Louis-Philippe Ruel said the business was a total loss.
No injuries were reported and no arrests have been made, but the investigation is ongoing, he said. The same business had been targeted by another suspicious fire earlier this week, which resulted in one arrest.
Mayor Besombes said he has met with the SQ three times over the last few weeks about the suspicious fires but that “more will need to be done.”
“I have therefore requested an urgent meeting with the Minister of Public Safety so that this situation is taken seriously and concrete actions can be discussed quickly. This cannot continue,” he wrote on Facebook.
He said he shares the “concern, anger, and frustration felt by many residents and business owners” following recent incidents.
“A repeated series of events like this cannot be treated as normal. The safety of our residents, our businesses, and our community must remain an absolute priority,” he added.
On Sept. 20, the mayor said on Facebook that the Express 57 restaurant was targeted by a suspicious overnight fire for a second time, and that it came a few weeks after another fire that destroyed the Casa Venezia restaurant on Lambton Street.
A post on the Casa Venezia Facebook page at the time thanked those who showed support for the pizzeria, saying, “it touches us directly to the heart.”
Casa Venezia said on Facebook that it was “doing everything we can to get back on our feet as quickly as possible, so that we can serve you again.”
