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The Americas

Police on the hunt for serial porta-potty arsonist

By Travis Fedschun , Fox News
Published | Updated
Porta-Potty Arsonist

A fire started in a porta-potty damaged a warehouse site operated by Vancouver Art and Leisure. (Vancouver Art and Leisure)

Canadian authorities are hunting the person responsible for a rash of fires targeting portable bathrooms in downtown Vancouver.

Seven porta-potties have been set on fire in the late night or early-morning hours between Dec. 8 and Jan. 19, the Vancouver Police Department said in a news release.

"In some instances, adjacent buildings have also caught on fire," police said. "Fortunately, no one has been injured."

Investigators are asking anyone who has a porta-potty on their property to take overnight precautions, and they recommend moving the washroom away from buildings or structures, locking it and removing toilet paper and hand sanitizer.

One of the fires grew so large it ended up damaging a music venue.

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Vancouver Art and Leisure, an artist-run organization that operates a warehouse site, said in a Facebook post it has had to cancel or move upcoming events to other venues after a fire on Jan. 4 spread to one of its properties and caused "significant exterior and interior damage."

"We do not know what the motive for this senseless act may have been but it is not our first adversity and we hope to recover," the group said.

Jesse Harink, who oversees the organization's drag programming, told CBC News the fire was heartbreaking to the staff of the facility, which caters to the city's LGBT community. The group has since launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for security, insurance costs and provisions for staff members who are out of work for several weeks.

"It's not just that it's an empty warehouse that caught fire," Harink told CBC News. "It's for so many people one of the only safe places where they can go to and express themselves and feel like they are accepted."

Vancouver Police are advising people to be cautious and to report any suspicious activity around porta-potties to police until they catch the arsonist.