It is the turn of a Lebanese bakery to be the target of an arson attack in Montreal, when an incendiary object was thrown into this business in Ahuntsic-Cartierville, at the start of the day on Sunday. Police opened an investigation.
A 911 call was first made around 5 a.m. Sunday morning regarding this event. The fire was declared in the Achtarout bakery, located at the corner of Charles-de-La Tour and Antonio-Barbeau streets. When the first police arrived, the blaze had already been brought under control by Montreal firefighters, who were the first to arrive on site.
A window had been “smashed by an incendiary object thrown inside,” said agent Jean-Pierre Brabant, spokesperson for the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM). The object in question could be “recovered” by the investigators, he added.
“Significant damage” was caused to the establishment, but these were mainly caused by the sprinklers having been activated during the fire, also mentioned Mr. Brabant. No one was injured during the incident and the police have not yet made any arrests.
As there would be no witnesses, the investigators will view in particular the video tapes of surveillance cameras located nearby, in order to potentially identify a fleeing vehicle after the fact. An investigation has been opened and will follow its course in the coming days.
Mid-May, The Press revealed that more than one fire per day had been lit in May in the metropolis. Some businesses have been hit two or even three times in a row. In May alone, in 11 days, 16 arson fires have already been started, an average of 1.6 per day.
This increase in arson could be linked to conflicts between organized crime groups, extortion attempts, or even disputes between networks of vehicle thieves.
“Often, the suspects are vulnerable people who have been offered drugs or an amount of money, and who are going to set fire to the business without knowing the reason for which they are doing it”, had illustrated the inspector of investigations SPVM specialists and head of the arson section, Karine Paquette.
As of May 11, Montreal police had recorded 220 arson attacks, compared to 130 for the first quarter of 2022. Last year, the figure of 220 arson attacks was reached by the end of the first week of July; 2023 is therefore about eight weeks ahead of 2022.