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RCMP suspect arson in fires at flooded Manitoba reserve

Oct. 11, 2013, Lake St. Martin, Man. – RCMP have launched an arson investigation after four homes were torched on the flood-swamped Lake St. Martin First Nation.

Two of the house fires were reported late Sept. 30 to RCMP in Gypsumville, then two days later another two homes burned to the ground.

RCMP believe arson is the cause of all four house fires.

Hundreds of residents were evacuated during the 2011 flood and they remain the biggest number of evacuees among 2,000 First Nations people still out of their homes two years later.

RCMP officers and officials from the Office of the Fire Commission discovered another five homes reduced to rubble after a tour of the Interlake First Nation last week to inspect the first four fires.

Proving those five homes were arson however may be impossible.

They all appear to have been burned and subsequently bulldozed months ago.

There was grass growing out of the rubble, investigators reported.