Man pleads guilty to arson in commercial building fire that led to $3M in losses: Delta police

A dental business in Delta was gutted by an early morning fire on Jan. 1.

Police in Delta, B.C., say an investigation into a fire that burned down a commercial building on New Year's Day last year has ended with a guilty plea.

Police say in a news release that the building in the suburb of Tsawwassen was destroyed in the fire.

The building housed two dental practices and a music school, and police say the total loss is valued at more than $3 million.

Deputy Chief Harj Sidhu says officers retrieved key information from a digital video recorder that had been submerged in water, through help from the local fire department and municipal engineering services.

The release says 31-year-old Daniel Hacking has pleaded guilty to arson.

Delta police spokeswoman Cris Leykauf says Hacking has not been linked with two suspicious fires that destroyed or damaged three empty homes in the same region and those fires are still being investigated.

“Those remain under investigation and at this point there's no connection to those fires and this guilty plea,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2021.