Police lay charges in fire that destroyed city hotel
By Al Beeber & Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on April 13, 2023.
Herald photo by Al Beeber
The remains of the Lethbridge Hotel are seen Wednesday behind a fence along 5 Street downtown. A city man has been charged in connection with the February blaze which destroyed the building.Charges have been laid against a city man in the fire that destroyed the vacant Lethbridge Hotel in February.
Lethbridge Police Services say Michael Randall Big Swan, 29, is facing charges of shopbreaking and commit arson. He was remanded into custody and appeared briefly in court Wednesday before he was thrown out.
Big Swan passed out while he was sitting in a courtroom waiting for his matter to be called. When the sheriff woke him, he began causing a disturbance and had to be escorted out. Duty counsel spoke on the accused’s behalf and adjourned the matter to April 26.
Police said in a news release that Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services investigators determined the fire that started in the early hours of Feb. 24 was man-made and suspicious in nature.
This determination was made after an investigation and the remediation of material because of asbestos contamination.
Members of the LPS Property Crimes Unit assumed the investigation and after a suspect was identified, Big Swan was arrested without incident and charged on April 6.
The fire destroyed much of the building and the front facade was demolished soon after out of concern for public and worker safety.
LPS said in its release that the property owner is responsible for any further demolition or restoration work on site. The property remains fenced off but sidewalks and parking in the immediate area are open with the exception of a section on its north side between 4 and 5 Streets.
Police also said because of extensive damage to the historic Bow On Tong building after a fire on Jan. 31 no cause of that blaze has been determined.
A person of interest was identified after a determination that fire was suspicious but insufficient evidence existed to lay charges. Police add there is no evidence of a connection between the two blazes but an investigation could be reopened pending the discovery of new evidence.
The Lethbridge Hotel fire was battled by fire crews in extreme winter conditions with the temperature in the low -40C range when it broke out.
The site of the Lethbridge Hotel has a long history here. The first city hotel here was built there in 1885 by William Henderson who later served as Lethbridge’s mayor. That hotel actually served as a meeting place for council.
The present hotel was long a favourite watering hole of people who patronized a bar which went by various names over the years.
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No surprise what ‘group’ it was and I say group, because we know he was not the only one who was in the vacant hotel illegally using it to shelter, burning fires on floors to stay warm and do drugs.
How many more structures and lives will be lost? Allowing vagrancy/loitering overnight in areas where they do not have any legal business being there needs to end. They just don’t care about anything or anyone but themselves and getting high, having no clue as to the lives lost or costs the taxpayer must pay.
It’s time that “group” start to pay the City of Lethbridge a special circumstances tax for the amount of money we spend policing and homing etc. They get billions of dollars from the government (We the taxpayers) so they can pay for the amount it costs society to have the pleasure of their company!!!
I would think nearly half of our police budget goes to looking after these from our “neighboring areas” yet they pay no taxes.
I agree! I have read one of the comments, more than once that have stated there is a class action lawsuit in the works, but I don’t know if it is businesses, communities, or who . . . maybe someone can supply more details?
I estimate over 60% of fire/EMS calls in Lethbridge are related to drug overdoses and at least 60% of police officer hours, when you include the investigations, ident and scene investigation, 911 calls/follow ups, etc.
The costs to those services has to be over $7 million per year conservatively speaking.
Local property taxes/revenues paid for over $14 million last year alone dealing with the addiction/homeless issues, not including the tens of millions of federal and provincial taxpayer dollars that flow into the community for these issues.
It stresses the housing market, the police/fire/EMS services, the support services that provide food/clothing/meals while taking away donor dollars from many of the other non-profits such as the heart and stroke foundation, the cancer foundation, and many other unrelated non-profits who supply support for areas not related to addiction/homeless issues such as the big brothers and sisters organization . . . there are only so many donor dollars to go around.
Estimates are that each addict costs the taxpayer between $100,000 to $350,000 per year, depending on their criminal activities not to mention property losses. How many businesses now will close near the Lethbridge Hotel due to loss of revenues from the streets being closed off and the water main break in that area?
A CBC news report today from Edmonton stated that in BC, the same 40 people were arrested 6,000 times in total last year . . . arrested and released. Change is needed but we need a government who is not afraid to put forth the legislation, the laws and the penalties needed to end this.
People are tired, they are angry and everyday more people are impacted by these failures to deal with the issues, and stop pampering and enabling the offenders. It doesn’t work and the crime stats prove it!
if they feel he is responsible, how is that he gets escorted from court to the outside, rather than to remand? is it that arson is not a serious enough offence? is that perhaps the city feels having arsonist/squatters holing up in unkempt downtown buildings is the best way to get them demolished so that the usual beneficiaries of city money can move in a buy up ready to go below market land?
Biff, he was escorted from the prisoners dock to the cells,,,not outside. It states he was remanded into custody.
A good rant is justified on the topic u raise….just not on a base of erroneous facts.
sorry, but the writing is rather ambiguous, is it not. “He was remanded into custody and appeared briefly in court Wednesday before he was thrown out. Big Swan passed out while he was sitting in a courtroom waiting for his matter to be called. When the sheriff woke him, he began causing a disturbance and had to be escorted out.”
he was in custody going in, but the writer does not specify what “out” was.
Wow Biff, I seldom concur with what you to say, am I dreaming? I actually concur with part of what you said today.
When I looked at all of the policies and planned projects that the leadership has proposed over the past few years that would destroy downtown businesses, I thought it couldn’t be so stupid to not have a motive that would benefit developers or realtors.
Although the city assessors have been increasing property values in their assessments, there are increasingly many vacant buildings in the downtown area stemming from fears to open businesses in the area or from those the failed.
I had the thought that if there was corruption in the LPS, why wouldn’t it also exist in City Hall! Are palms being greased?
Good point Biff!