Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Arsonist sets small fires near zoo, duck pond

POLICE suspect an arsonist is to blame for a series of small fires set in Assiniboine Park over the weekend.On Saturday, wooded areas east of the Assiniboine Park Zoo parking lot were found on fire by passersby traversing the informal pathways known as monkey trails between the zoo and the park's duck pond.

The fires, which engulfed ground cover and low-lying vegetation, were not visible from roadways. Park police believe they were set deliberately using some form of accelerant, probably by the same person or group of people.

Winnipeg firefighters extinguished the active fires. Several square metres of underbrush near the fires were also found burned out.

On Saturday afternoon, arson investigators from the Winnipeg Police Service, park police and Winnipeg firefighters all attended the scene.

Police have not arrested a suspect, a Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman said.

Assiniboine Park administrators declined to comment. The fires took place one day after the Assiniboine Park Conservancy announced a $180-million park revitalization plan that could see the monkey trails replaced with formal pathways.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 23, 2009 B2

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