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Kelowna police arrest man walking around, setting fires with a blow torch

Kelowna police arrest man walking around, setting fires with a blow torch | iNFOnews.ca
Photographer: John McDonald

KELOWNA – Police say a 21-year-old man now in custody was walking along Highway 97 with a blow torch lighting landscaped sidewalks on fire with a blow torch.

Kelowna RCMP credit witnesses to the bizarre event for alerting firefighters and police just after noon yesterday, July 30.

Police spokesperson Cpl. Dan Moskaluk says callers reported the man in the 1900 block of Harvey Ave at 12:24 p.m. Witnesses told police the man "attempted to set other fires along his route."

By the time police arrived, firefighters pointed him out. They arrested him at a retail outlet at the corner Burtch Rd and Harvey Ave "without incident." 

"Mostly landscaping was damaged along with one portable billboard," Moskaluk says. "No structures were affected."

The Kelowna man was held in custody and appeared in Kelowna today.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw or call 250-718-0428 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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Marshall Jones

News is best when it's local, relevant, timely and interesting. That's our focus every day.

We are on the ground in Penticton, Vernon, Kelowna and Kamloops to bring you the stories that matter most.

Marshall may call West Kelowna home, but after 16 years in local news and 14 in the Okanagan, he knows better than to tell readers in other communities what is "news' to them. He relies on resident reporters to reflect their own community priorities and needs. As the newsroom leader, his job is making those reporters better, ensuring accuracy, fairness and meeting the highest standards of journalism.

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