Recent fires in downtown Nanaimo have sparked a response from residents who gave voice to their fear and frustration this week.
A press conference Friday, Aug. 16, hosted by the Nanaimo Area Public Safety Association, drew a small group of people who live around Victoria Road, Victoria Crescent and Nob Hill Park who spoke at a parking lot across the street from Nanaimo’s historical No. 2 Fire Hall which was damaged by a suspicious fire Friday, Aug. 9.
According to statistics compiled by NAPSA, Nanaimo Fire Rescue's fire callouts within a two-block radius of Nob Hill Park have jumped 700 per cent since 2016, when there were 14. In 2023, fire calls for the area totalled 216, and as of the end of July this year there have been 123 fires.
“We’re standing in the epicentre of fires responded to by Nanaimo fire department … Last month there were 28 fires, the second-highest number of fires in a single month for this area since records were available in 2005,” said Collen Middleton, NAPSA president. “So far this month, there have already been six fires in the two-block radius around Nob Hill Park. We are on pace for more than 200 fires in these areas for a second consecutive year. Enough was enough so long ago it feels futile to keep saying it.”
The News Bulletin has reached out to Nanaimo Fire Rescue has yet to confirm the figures, but residents blame the skyrocketing fire numbers on people suffering mental health problems and drug addiction who congregate in the area, and on drug decriminalization.
“What the provincial and federal governments are letting happen on our streets, to our businesses and to our neighbourhoods is so very sad, in some cases, a crime,” said Kevan Shaw, founder of the Victoria Crescent Association. “Last Friday, Nanaimo’s old fire hall, just across the street, built in the late 1800s, was deliberately set on fire … Someone apparently squirted or threw flammable liquid through the scissor gate, fencing that is being set up … to stop vandals, or alcoves from being used for camping, defecation or drug use.”
Shaw said people on the streets are suffering and some should be placed in involuntary care to be treated for mental health issues or drug detoxification.
“Pretty well daily, residents pray that their homes won’t be vandalized, they won’t be set on fire or that they won’t be assaulted,” Shaw said.
Area resident Gina Lum said she’s often afraid to walk outside.
“I have lived my whole life here. I love this city. This is my home, my community,” she said.
Lum taught school in Nanaimo for 28 years and raised her children in the city, and her parents formerly owned the Modern Café on Commercial Street.
“I have felt devastated watching what has happened to my neighbourhood in the last five years. I feel unsafe in my own garden,” she said.
Lum cited a recent incident when a man with “a large club” in front of her home smashed things as he walked up the street, and said there is drug dealing happening day and night, and arson attempts.
She said people on the street don’t get the help they need.
“We are afraid and angry,” Lum said. “We don’t see a way forward. A lot of these people are young and should have their lives ahead of them. They need to be off the streets with lots of support.”
Debra Elliott said the corner of Needham Street and Victoria Road was a beautiful place to grow up, but now she can’t let her grandchildren play in her yard because of discarded needles and drug use, and people relieving themselves. She said she's even witnessed human trafficking and an incident of a victim abducted and locked in a camper in the back of a truck.
“Giving them money for drugs, it’s not helping and it’s 10 times worse than it ever was,” Elliott said.
Les Girard lives on Finlayson Street and said someone recently lit his fence on fire. It followed an attempt to burn his neighbour’s fence days earlier.
“It’s continuous,” Girard said. “I have kids in my neighbourhood, my neighbours have kids … We’re dealing with arsons. We’re dealing with people who are incoherent – not even able to know where they are – We’ve got people who walk around indecently exposed, not even aware that their pants and their underwear are down to their knees and their privates are out in the open … My neighbour’s kid’s under 10 years old and has had to witness fires, overdoses, fights, things that a child should not have to witness.”
Girard said his children no longer want to play outside and his family even keeps their blinds drawn to avoid witnessing what's going on in the neighbourhood. He said people arrested for vandalism and even suspects of repeated arson are released back into the community.
“Meanwhile, now me and my family are on edge because will it be another fire? Will it be our house? … What’s going on now is out of control … We need to take away, as harsh as it sounds, a lot of the safety-netting that is in place and bring forth real treatment, real justice for the criminals that get slaps on the wrist,” Girard said. “Something’s got to change. It’s enough.”
