Another porta-potty has fallen victim to what looks like arson.
The fire department reported a fire that melted a portable toilet to the ground at the skate park by the Art Hauser Centre on Wednesday evening. Firefighters responded to to the blaze at 10:24 p.m. and extinguished the flames. The porta-potty could not be saved.
The incident is at least the third porta-potty fire reported this year. The fire department responded to two burning portable toilets in May, one at Arthur Pechey School and one near St. Mary’s.
Battalion Chief Gerald Parks said the fire department has no reason to believe the incidents are connected.
“I would just assume it’s probably a random act of people being malicious,” he said.
Parks said it’s hard to deny that the fire looks suspicious. But he added that porta-potty fires are notoriously difficult to investigate.
“How do you investigate that?” he asked. “By the time we get up there, the porta-potty is pretty much burnt to the ground. The only thing left is the stuff that’s inside.”
Eleven-year-old Clayton is a regular user of the skate park. He said losing the toilet will have a major impact on his weekend routine.
“It makes me mad that someone would burn it down,” he said. “On the weekends I stay here sometimes and I’ll be at the skate park for eight hours, and I hate having to cross the busy street just to use the washroom.”
For more on this story, see the August 5 edition of the Daily Herald.
