Camera caught person walking away from fireball at Sandy Bay CFS office in 2019: fire commissioner

A person suspected of deliberately setting a fire that destroyed the Sandy Bay First Nation Child and Family Services office in 2019 was caught on camera, a report from the Manitoba Office of the Fire Commissioner says.

The report, obtained by CBC News through a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act request, outlines why the fire commissioner's office deemed the fire was intentionally set.

The fire investigation found a security camera captured video showing a person walking away from the child and family services office on Sandy Bay — a First Nation about 130 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg — as the building burned on Dec. 15, 2019.

A large fireball is seen in the video, also obtained by CBC, at the northwest corner of the building, which housed the storage room where the Office of the Fire Commissioner says the fire likely started.

"Approximately five minutes after the ignition of the fire in the storage room, someone is seen walking away from the building at the front (south) and heading west," says the report, signed by fire investigator Ken Kroeker.

It says the initial fireball and the rate of spread for the fire are consistent with the use of an ignitable liquid.

The fire appeared to be set by the person seen in the video with the "intention of causing severe damage to the property," the report says.

The Manitoba First Nations Police Service also investigated the fire, but that investigation concluded in April 2021 without any charges laid, due to a lack of evidence.

The security camera video runs just over one hour and 45 minutes, the report says, and helps paint a picture of what happened on the morning of Dec. 15, 2019.

According to the report, an alarm system with motion detectors and heat detectors was set off several times, with the first alarm from a motion detector at 5:33 a.m.

The doors to the building would be locked with magnetic devices, so a card was required to gain entry both during normal operating hours and after hours, the report says.

At 5:35 a.m. on Dec. 15, the surveillance video shows a large fire ignited from the floor area in the storage room, as seen through a window, according to the report.

"This window was removed, or opened prior to the ignition of the fire," the report says, and the video shows smoke "exiting through the window opening instantaneously after ignition of fire and moving east."

The fire spread quickly, and by 5:37 a.m. the storage room and the northwest corner office were engulfed. A minute later, the 911 communications centre received notification of the fire, and noted 5:38 a.m. as the alarm time.