The aftermath of the fire at the former Fashion 5 building on Victoria Street. (Image Credit: Victor Kaisar/CFJC Today File)

By Victor Kaisar

Arson Arrests

Kamloops top cop reports some success in investigations into recent suspicious fires

Feb 1, 2026 | 1:33 PM

KAMLOOPS — The head of the Kamloops RCMP detachment says his officers have been having some success in solving some recent suspicious fires across the city.

At the Jan. 26 safety and security committee meeting, Councillor Bill Sarai asked how seriously the courts were treating cases of arson where suspects were identified or arrested.

“Our community, especially in the summer time, we’re on high alert,” Sarai said. “Our community and our residents are panicking when they see any signs of smoke, or a fire, and fire trucks flying all through our city. How seriously are our courts, or our charge assessments taking that?”

“Is it just normal routine and they’re back on the street or are they actually getting jail time?”

RCMP Superintendent Jeff Pelley responded and said that police take suspicious fires seriously, noting they respond to those calls on a case-by-case basis.

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“We’ve had some jail terms for offenders,” Pelley said. “We’ve had a solve on two recent arsons that has resulted in charges as well as a detention for bail at this time.”

“It’s obviously completely separate form any warming fires or where there are demands, so we have had some success but again, it is case dependent.”

According to the Kamloops Fire Rescue data, there was a small uptick in the number of fires across seven high-issue commercial corridors, from 157 in 2024 to 166 in 2025, though not all of those calls were for suspicious fires.

The data also showed a slight increase in the number of burning complaint calls from 59 in 2024 to 63 in 2025.

“We work closely with the RCMP when we determine a fire to be suspicious,” Kamloops Fire Chief, Ken Uzeloc said. “They create a file and work with us to identify the person responsible. Once that’s done, the RCMP works with the Crown to make the decision to lay charges or not.”

Recent string of suspicious fires

On Tuesday (Jan. 27) last week, RCMP said a fire at the former Fashion 5 store on Victoria Street downtown is being investigated as a case of arson. There is no indication that police have identified suspects.

On Jan. 15, police also announced the arrest of two suspects connected to a pair of suspicious fires in the Mount Paul Industrial Park and near the Halston Bridge.

Police also believe that a fire that destroyed two vehicles at Budget Brake and Muffler on West Victoria Street on Jan. 7 was intentionally set. No word again if any suspects have been identified.

In October last year, investigators were looking into a series of fires across the city, including the one at Westmount Elementary.

There were also a series of interface fires across Kamloops last year. In July Uzeloc said the majority of those appeared to have been caused by either campfires or cooking fires, though some are being investigated as arson.

“We pinpoint back to the best possible hypothesis,” Uzeloc said at the time, noting it is difficult to always pinpoint a cause of a fire if there are no witnesses.