WATCH: Another Canadian church burns, this time in Vernon

PENTICTON — Flames punched through the roof of Vernon Alliance Church on Monday evening, the latest church to catch fire as part of a disturbing trend across Canada in recent years..The church sits in the 2600 block of 43 Ave. The city closed the street between 25th and 27th streets while crews worked.Video of the fire is now making the rounds on social media.About 35 firefighters from Vernon, BX/Swan Lake, Coldstream and Armstrong-Spallumcheen answered the mutual-aid call. Vernon North Okanagan RCMP, BC Emergency Health Services, FortisBC and BC Hydro also attended.No one was injured..The church said everyone was out and safe, the building was closed until further notice, and people should stay away while crews were still on the fire. City communications later said the fire caused significant damage to the structure.Fire Chief David Lind thanked the regional partners and the other agencies on scene. “We are grateful that no one was injured in this incident,” he said. “This event is an important reminder that fire can spread quickly.”Vernon Fire Rescue was still on the lot Tuesday morning working hot spots. Residents were told to expect smoke and steam through the day. The cause has not been determined. Vernon Fire Rescue and the RCMP are investigating.The congregation dates to May 17, 1953, when 18 people met in a living room. The Monday calendar had listed Common Threads, the church’s drop-in food and clothing outreach, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. — hours before the first smoke call..A single North Okanagan fire does not, by itself, prove a motive. It does land on a ledger Canada has refused to close.Police-reported arsons at places of worship — churches, synagogues, temples and mosques — reached 592 between 2010 and 2022, according to figures the federal government tabled in the House of Commons after Conservative MP Marc Dalton asked for the count. The annual total jumped from 58 in 2020 to 90 in 2021, the year Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc — also known as the Kamloops Indian Band — announced ground-penetrating radar anomalies at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. The count stayed high: 74 in 2022 and 74 again in 2023.Custom Statistics Canada figures compiled later put the 2021-through-2024 total at 306 arsons at religious institutions. Charges remain rare. A 2025 Macdonald-Laurier Institute study of the 2021-23 wave found charges in fewer than 4% of those cases.CBC News, working from police files, court records and media reports, counted 33 Canadian churches burned to the ground between May 2021 and December 2023. Investigators confirmed 24 of those as arson. Two were ruled accidental. Most of the rest stayed unsolved.Vernon’s fire is not in that column yet. Lind and the city have not called it arson. They have not called it accidental either. Western Standard will track the story and update it as more information becomes available.

WATCH: Another Canadian church burns, this time in Vernon

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