Homes evacuated in Mission, B.C., amid police manhunt for arson suspect

Update: Mission RCMP said the police presence on Gunn Avenue has been "scaled back," the fires have been put out, and that they do not believe there is an ongoing public safety threat. A spokesperson said no suspects have been arrested, but that authorities are working to confirm whether anyone was inside a home that was burned.

Several homes were evacuated in a rural area of Mission, B.C., on Thursday as authorities searched for a man suspected in multiple arsons.

Heavily armed members of the RCMP's Emergency Response Team evacuated a number of properties in the Silverdale area on Thursday, but only as a precaution, authorities said.

The manhunt followed multiple suspicious fires along Gunn Avenue, the first discovered Wednesday evening at what appears to be a vacant property.

"First responders arrived to find several buildings on the property on fire, with indications that the fires had been intentionally set," Mission RCMP said in a news release.

Several additional structure fires – which authorities also believe to be the result of arson – were discovered at another Gunn Avenue property the next morning.

Mission RCMP said officers and firefighters were initially forced to keep away from the raging fires for safety, but that they believe a suspect in the arsons remained somewhere on the property as of Thursday afternoon.

"This has been a challenging situation, with significant safety risks to all first responders,” Cpl. Harrison Mohr with the Mission RCMP said in a statement. "Our officers are working diligently to try to bring about a peaceful resolution to this matter."

Authorities have asked members of the public to keep away from the area, and to avoid sharing the locations of emergency responders on social media.

Gunn Avenue was also the scene of a suspicious fire in August 2020. The body of 64-year-old Vien Ngoc Bui was discovered on a rural property after the blaze was extinguished.

Following an investigation by the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, a 60-year-old man named Van Chau Nguyen would later plead guilty to second-degree murder.

At this point, it is not clear if the scene of that crime is also one of the two addresses where the most recent alleged arsons took place.