By: Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban
What some may consider to be an epidemic of car fires in the borough of St. Laurent continued with two vehicles damaged early on Dec. 31.
Police and the fire department were called at around 2:45 a.m. to the parking lot of a home at Côte Vertu and Lebeau, near the eastern tip of the borough. Police say one car is a total loss and the other suffered minor damage. The SPVM says the cause of the fire is unknown and no incendiary device was found, but that the incident is being investigated by the arson squad.
The Suburban asked SPVM spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant why there are numerous incidents of car fires in St. Laurent — some in residential and some in industrial areas.
“We’re looking at it, but there are no answers at this point,” he said. “We’re trying to look into who did this, if the people are connected, but there’s no information indicating a link. But we’re still trying to get those people who are setting the fires.”
Most recently, two vehicle fires took place within the space of a week in St. Laurent, one occurring 9:30 p.m. Dec. 19 in the rear of an industrial building in the area of St. Charles, in the western part of the borough. The other took place early in the morning of Dec. 17 in the area of Jean Bouillet Avenue and Keller Boulevard, this time a residential area, in the north western part of St. Laurent.
A vehicle fire also took place in early November, at Cypihot Street, near Douglas-B.-Floreani Street in the western part of the borough. Three semi-trailers were damaged in that incident.
As reported by The Suburban, numerous other fires have been set in recent years in St. Laurent in the industrial areas of the borough, in the driveways of private homes, destroying and damaging vehicles; and at local businesses allegedly as part of extortion schemes against Arab-owned restaurants. Businesses and restaurants have also been fired upon.
Recently, vehicles in two St. Laurent driveways — both in close proximity to the Beth Ora Synagogue — were set on fire, less than a month apart. And last February, two fires in a space of 90 minutes took place at a home on Alexis-Nihon, damaging several vehicles, and at the Challenger Conference and Reception Hall.
Incidents have stretched even as far back as the 1980s, when an explosion took place at a home near St. Louis — I heard part of the blast in the form of a bang in my home on nearby Brunet Street. n