Charges have been laid in a September church fire, according to an RCMP press release issued Tuesday.On Saturday, Loon Lake RCMP arrested a male in relation to a September fire that destroyed St. George Anglican Church in Loon Lake. The fire was determined suspicious in nature.Shandon Chief, 25, from Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation is charged with one count of arson. He was also arrested for breaching a conditional sentence order. He appeared in Meadow Lake Provincial Court on Monday.The community of Loon Lake is 150 km northwest of North Battleford.Following the fire, Mayor Brian Hirschfeld told CBC the church was built in 1939, and held monthly community services."It should have been a heritage site but that didn't happen," Hirschfeld said. "It was kind of the last of the main old structures of the village."Hirschfeld said the community has seen a huge rise in crime and vandalism since the summer.RCMP said in a September news release that the church located on Main Street was fully engulfed in flames when officers arrived on Saturday morning. No one was at the church at the time of the fire.
