Police, MP believe arson behind Mississauga fire

Mississauga Member of Parliament Bob Dechert believes his constituency office was a target of an alleged arsonist who attempted to set it on fire two weeks ago.

On Feb. 3 a fire was set outside the Mississauga-Erindale MP’s office, causing $5 million in damages to the building. The building was evacuated immediately and there were no serious injuries reported.

Reports after the incident say that Dechert at the time did not believe the arsonist was targeting his office, however the MP alleges the fire set on the same floor of his office was intentional.

“Our office seems to be his only connection to the third floor of the office building, so we assume that our office was his target,” Dechert said.

Dechert says such attacks are rare and believes there will be no need to boost security measures in the building.

“We do not expect it to be repeated,” Dechert said. “We will be more vigilant, however we will remain accessible to the people I represent.”

The MP is thankful that medical and emergency response teams handled the situation quickly, allowing all 250 people in the building to be evacuated safely. His assistant discovered the fire and alerted others in the building.

“I also wish to commend my assistant Dan Duncan whose quick actions in discovering the fire, attempting to extinguish it and sounding the alarm helped to save lives and prevent serious injury.

Police allege a Mississauga man, 42-year-old Mikhail Khavkine, set the fire. He was arrested on Feb. 13 at Pearson International Airport and has been remanded into custody.

About this article

By: Lydia K. Moore
Posted: Feb 18 2010 5:10 pm
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Filed under: News