A man was arrested Monday morning after a driftwood sculpture of mammoths on Colwood’s Royal Bay Beach was destroyed by arson.
West Shore RCMP made the arrest after finding the man nearby.
Colwood Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Greg Chow said the sculpture of an adult and a baby mammoth was commissioned several years ago by an area developer.
“Unfortunately, somebody set it ablaze this morning,” he said Monday.
Chow said a fire engine was sent to the beach about 7:30 a.m., and a crew had the fire out in 10 to 15 minutes.
The sculpture was in the middle of a sandy area, so the fire didn’t spread, Chow said.
Gregg Carmichael was on his daily beach walk with his dog when he saw a man taking a hatchet to the sculpture as he walked by, so he called police and waited for them.
The man had disappeared by then, and Carmichael headed in the direction of Esquimalt Lagoon, where three firefighters were tending to a beach fire.
When he returned toward the mammoth, he spotted the man who had been damaging it and called police again. “That’s when I noticed smoke, and then I saw flames.”
Carmichael said the fire started when the debris left from chopping the sculpture was set ablaze.
He said he wasn’t able to get close enough to try kicking the main part of the fire away from the sculpture. “The fire took off very quickly.”
The firefighters and police soon arrived, and the suspect wasn’t far away, Carmichael said. “I watched as police arrested the guy and brought him back,” he said.
A hatchet was found by police in the area where the man was arrested.
Police said the man seemed to be having a mental-health crisis, and is thought to have started the beach fire in addition to the statue fire.
Damage in the beach and statue fires was estimated at $30,000 to $40,000.
Carmichael said he believes the man also damaged a sign above the beach as well as the public stairs. “You could hear him hacking at it.”
A 41-year-old man appeared in court Monday afternoon, with police recommending charges of arson causing damage to property and mischief over $5,000.
