Fire destroys New Edinburgh lobster pound days before season opens

RCMP are investigating after a fire destroyed another lobster pound in Nova Scotiajust days before lobster season in the area opens on Tuesday.

Staff Sgt. Marc Rose said the 911 call came in shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday that the fish plant on Riverside Road in New Edinburgh, N.S., was on fire.

He said flames could be seen from a "great distance away."

"It was a large, large fire and they fought it into the next day and right now the scene is being guarded for further investigation," Rose said.

RCMP said firefighters extinguished the fire shortly before 3 a.m. Friday.

The same lobster plant was vandalized in 2020 whenseveral hundred commercial fishermen and their supporters raided two facilities where Mi'kmaw fishermen were storing their catches.A van was destroyed and people were charged.

"We were relieved to hear it was empty during the fire,"Sipekne'katik Chief Mike Sack said in a statement Friday, noting his community isnot currently affiliated with the New Edinburgh plant.

"It is always unfortunate when property damage occurs particularly this close to the season and the holidays.Our thoughts are with everyone affected."

The owner of the pound was later charged for making false statements to fisheries inspectors, and fined $20,000for failing to disclose lobster sales.

Rose said he was unable to say whether Thursday's fire is suspicious but it's under investigation.

Amid tensionssurrounding the First Nations lobster harvest in southwest Nova Scotia last fall, a lobster pound in Middle West Pubnico was destroyed in a suspicious fire. One man was arrested and chargednine months later.

Multiple RCMP detachments responded to the call Thursday night, as well as several volunteer fire departments. Police evacuated nearby homes because of the smoke in the air and embers jumping across the road.

RCMP say no one wasinjured in the fire.