Charges laid in White Rock's 2016 'Five Corners Fire'
More than six years after flames tore through an apartment building in White Rock, and more than 18 months after police announced they had made arrests in the case, charges have now been laid against a Surrey man, Mounties announced Thursday.
James Adrian Dyer was 18 years old at the time the fire broke out in an under-construction condo building and quickly spread to a nearby apartment complex, displacing around 100 residents, according to White Rock RCMP.
The now-24-year-old is facing seven charges, including arson, police said in a news release.
The blaze occurred on May 15, 2016 in the 15200 block of Pacific Avenue and has become known as the "Five Corners Fire." It caused millions of dollars in damage, and the efforts to fight it affected the city's water supply and quality, according to police.
In July 2021, Mounties announced that they had arrested two men who they suspected of several arsons that occurred in White Rock on the date of the fire.
At the time, police said one of the men was from "the local area" and the other was from outside the Lower Mainland. They did not name either suspect, as charges had not yet been laid. Police did not say Thursday whether Dyer was one of the two suspects arrested in July 2021.
Mounties did not list the other six charges against Dyer in their most recent statement, but online court records indicate that he has been charged with the following:
- Two counts of arson damaging property
- One count of arson in relation to inhabited property
- Two counts of theft
- One count of breaking and entering and committing an indictable offence
- One count of breaking and entering with intent to commit an offence
All of the alleged offences occurred in White Rock.
Dyer is scheduled to make his first court appearance in Surrey on Feb. 23, police said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
What happens after we die? Most Canadians say an afterlife does exist, survey shows
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.