Local crime story of the year: Red Bridge arson remains a mystery as cleanup nears end – Kamloops News

Castanet revisits his top stories of an eventful 2024. Today, for the Kamloops crime story of the year, we look back at the arson that claimed the historic Red Bridge, reducing the landmark to smoldering rubble. Police continue to search for suspects as the province weighs its rebuilding options.

The process of removing the remains of the Red Bridge is almost complete, and the police are still looking for who may be responsible the burning of the historical structure in 2024.

The 88-year-old wooden bridge was destroyed overnight on September 19 in an apparent fire that saw the bridge engulfed in flames and collapse into the waters of the South Thompson River.

Debris cleanup and piling removal from the river continued throughout the rest of the year and kept Pioneer Park closed to the public. The work is now close to completion, according to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MOTI).

Steve Sirett, MOTI’s executive director for the Southern Interior, said the cleanup will continue through the winter months of 2025.

“I would say the cleanup is about 70 percent complete,” Sirett said.

“We still need to get some sections of the bridge out of the river on the north side and a clean up of the beach and removal of some of the work we’ve done there, but that’s still on track to be done later in the winter.”

Sirett said water levels remain unchanged from what was reported back on October 10th when the Ministry of the Environment advised that no more updates would be issued unless the water quality had deteriorated.

He said residents have seen what appear to be four new piers pushed into the river, but they are only temporary structures in place to support a crane outrigger being used to remove the remaining bridge piers.

There is only one last dike to be removed from the river.

Sirett said the removed debris was tested for contamination levels to ensure it was safe to dispose of and sent to a landfill.

Investigators hope to focus on the suspects

Meanwhile, Kamloops RCMP continue to investigate and comb through what has been an extensive search for surveillance footage in an attempt to find a suspect.

“Police investigated thoroughly,” said Cpl. RCMP. Crystal Evelyn.

Evelyn said investigators conducted extensive searches for video footage. Police interviewed witnesses, the scene was investigated by fire investigators, and forensic testing of items collected from the scene is still ongoing.

“The investigation is far from over,” Evelyn said, adding that police will continue to follow up on leads and appeal for information from the public.

Evelyn said police are still trying to identify a suspect or suspects, depending on how many people were involved in the crime.

There is no deadline for completing the investigation.

“Every investigation is unique,” Evelyn said. “There are different elements to every investigation – this is no different – so to give a timeline or even an estimate, it’s just not possible.”

The Red Bridge burned at approximately 3:25 am on September 19, two days later another fire under the southern end of the span the bridge is temporarily closed. Evelyn said whether the two fires are connected is still under investigation.

The footage helped identify the suspected origin

Fire Chief Ken Uzeloc said fire investigators were tasked with determining the cause and origin of the Sept. 19 fire, which was difficult because most of the evidence burned and collapsed.

He said investigators relied on footage and images to help pinpoint where they believe the fire started and then worked quickly to determine it was suspicious.

He said the fire appeared to have started around the floor, or just below the floor, at the end of the first, southernmost span, located toward the middle of the bridge.

There weren’t many eyewitness accounts of the fire, other than what firefighters themselves saw when they arrived on the scene, but there was a large amount of footage gathered, Uzeloc said.

Once it was determined to be a suspect, Uzeloc said the criminal investigation was quickly turned over to the RCMP, with the KFR standing by to assist with any fire-related questions police may still have.

It was gone within minutes

The Red Bridge fire was initially thought to be a possible landscape fire, but crews on the way quickly saw that was not the case, and flames took down most of the bridge within minutes, Uzeloc told Castanet.

“When the first crews arrived on the scene at the Red Bridge, the first girder had already fallen into the water – burned and collapsed – and, shortly after arriving, a second one fell,” said Uzeloc.

“The fire was already moving very quickly and burned through the structural integrity of the bridge within the first seven minutes we were on the road.”

Uzeloc said old wooden bridges tend to contain flammable creosote-based wood preservatives that, when combined with dry, old wood, can cause rapid forward movement.

“Any type of accelerants that could have been used would have increased that rapidity of burning,” Uzeloc said, noting that the fire appeared to have been deliberately lit.

He said crews positioned themselves on both the north and south sides of the bridge and tried to put out what they could, noting that most of the bridge had fallen into the water and the debris continued to smolder for a few days after the fire.

Uzeloc said the southernmost opening fell into the river first, and the middle and then the northernmost followed suit into the river.

Cultural significance

Uzeloc told Castanet that the fire department is prepared to continue supporting the RCMP investigation in 2025. He noted that the loss of the bridge has had countless effects on Kamloops.

“It was a bridge that was used quite frequently for people to access that part of the business community through Tk’emlúps, and obviously they’re going to have an impact,” Uzeloc said.

“There’s (also) a lot of people who (recognize) the symbolism of that bridge. … There’s definitely a cultural, historical and community impact of losing that bridge on everybody.”

He said the Ministry of Transport has also ruled that the loss of the Red Bridge is an estimated loss of $25 million.

Planning process underway

The province has issued a request for qualifications to begin the planning process as it considers the next steps in rebuilding the bridge.

In a press release issued earlier this month, the province said a recently issued request for qualifications will “guide the evaluation of potential options and recommendations to ensure that traffic flow, multimodal connectivity and safety are adequately supported efficient in the region”.

The word “rebuild” was missing from the release, but Prime Minister David Eby pledged shortly after it burned that the Red Bridge would be rebuilt. His comments came just before the mandate was sent to the provincial election campaign.

“Yes, absolutely — we’re going to replace that bridge,” Eby told Castanet on Sept. 20.

A request for qualifications is a stage sometimes used in procurement as a preliminary screening of potential bidders.

Built in 1936, the Red Bridge was a narrow structure with restricted loading for passenger vehicles and pedestrians. Its lanes measured 2.7 meters wide—significantly narrower than the standard lane width of 3.5 meters.

It was the third iteration of the bridge to be built at that location, with the first being built in 1887.