Key takeaways:
- Angela Elise Cornish met four illegal counts linked to fires earlier this spring.
- A Kamloops, B.C., woman has been charged and is being held in detention on accusations of arson connected to recent wildfires in the province.
A B.C. lady faces numerous arson charges after police say she purposely initiated several wildfires in the region’s southeast earlier this spring.
According to an RCMP statement, Kamloops citizen Angela Elise Cornish, 42, was charged with four counts of arson. She is being held behind bars until a bail hearing is scheduled for Monday.
Lisa Hudema, wildfire enforcement director for the B.C. Wildfire Service said her agency started working with police after recognizing “an area of interest” close to Kamloops. Several recent human-caused fires were supposed to be “explosive in nature.”
Mounties say they were warned of Cornish’s alleged link to the fires after someone living in the Monte Lake region checking out smoke in the hills nearby on April 30 saw a suspect blue pickup truck on a logging road.
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Police alerted the community on May 3 after getting reports of an unknown individual lighting slash down on fire in two places in the Westwold area.
Investigators say more residents have since stepped on to report similar meetings with the pickup truck, which a woman drove.
“I wish to acknowledge the enormous assistance of the Monte Lake and Westwold citizens, who provided our probers with the valuable data we required to run this investigation,” RCMP Chief Supt successfully. Brad Haugli stated in the statement.
Any wildfires spotted across B.C. this spring and summer can be reported to the wildfire service at 1-800-663-5555 or dialing *5555 on a cellphone.
Source – cbc.ca
