Arson officially ruled as cause of early morning fire that gutted Vanier Sugar Shack

An early morning fire that tore through the Sugar Shack is now being treated as a crime scene investigation.

Firefighters were alerted to smoke and flames shooting out of the roof of the shack at 5:53 a.m. Four minutes later when fire crews arrived, the roof had already partially collapsed into the building, said Carson Tharris of the Ottawa Fire Service.

Tharris also pointed to the metal roof as the main reason why it took firefighters a couple of hours to gain control over the blaze.

“The fire had gotten underneath the tin roof. Once the heat is trapped by the metal it takes as long time to get the smoke and heat out of the structure.”     

As firefighters wrestled for control, fire investigators were to able to locate the point of origin which Tharris said narrowed to a pile of wood.

“There are combustible materials around the building, so there's some piles of wood used in the boiling of the syrup and some garbage and other recycling materials were used in the starting of the fire.” 

When the initial point of origin was found, arson investigators from Ottawa Police Service's arson unit joined in on the investigation.

Mathieur Fleury councillor for Rideau-Vanier, has said, he's calling on arson investigators to probe further, stating “we need to do a more diligent investigation of these fires. There's been a number of fires in our city. Specifically in Vanier over a number of years. We've never been able to get to the bottom of it.”

General Director Jean Malavoy who oversees MuseoParc, which the shack is located, shared with 1310 News/Ottawa Matters.com that the Sugar Shack flourishes with activities for school age children, kick-starting  with the Sugar Shack festival in February.

Malavoy confirmed that an estimated six thousand children participated in various events at the shack this past year alone.

“We're more educational than entertainment. People come here for workshops. We have 17 different work shops linked to the environment, culture and history.”                                      

Malavoy also mentioned that a good majority of revenue generated from Sugar Shack supports the overall operations of MuseoParc annually.

Fleury echoed Mr. Malavoy's sentiments with “the image of Vanier is anchored in the (Sugar Shack). It has so much meaning to our city.”