Arsonists back in action

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

Kings County Register

New Minas RCMP are investigating more arson - eight fires set in five places - in New Minas overnight Aug. 26 and 27.

New Minas Fire Chief Jim Redmond and his volunteer fire crew got little sleep battling blazes that began at 9:30 p.m. and ran into the early hours of the next day.

Three garbage bins were lit up at Lockhart-Ryan Park, followed by two dumpsters at the nearby New Minas Baptist Church.

At 2:45 a.m., Redmond said, a garbage bin at Cornwallis Chev Olds was also set on fire, followed by a dumpster at the rear of Empire Theatres.

The final fire call came at 3:30 a.m., when garbage in the woods east of Kings Court was torched.

Kings RCMP report Saturday a gas can was stolen from a shed on Cedarwood Crt. in New Minas.

A blaze set in a dumpster this past spring demolished a strip mall on Crescent Ave. in the village. There have been a series of other, smaller similar dumpster and shed fires as well.