Trinity United Church (Prince George, BC) exterior fire deemed arson

Early on 04 July 2021, Prince George Fire Services and the Prince George RCMP responded to a small fire on the exterior of Trinity United Church on Fifth Avenue in Prince George, British Columbia. Police were called at about 2:25 a.m. to assist crews at the scene, where the blaze caused minimal damage to the outside of the building. A fire investigator from the Prince George RCMP attended and determined that the fire was the result of arson, as reported by the Georgia Straight and Prince George Daily News.

Investigators appealed for the public's help, asking anyone with information, dash-cam footage, or surveillance video from the neighbourhood between roughly 1:45 a.m. and 2:25 a.m. to contact police. The RCMP confirmed the fire was deliberately set but did not publicly attribute a motive at the time, and the available reporting does not indicate that any suspect was identified or charged.

The incident occurred during a wave of fires and acts of vandalism at Canadian churches in the summer of 2021 that followed announcements of suspected unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools. As the Georgia Straight noted, in the wake of the confirmation of hundreds of unmarked graves at residential schools across Canada, including in British Columbia, several churches were vandalized or burned. Whether the Trinity United fire was connected to that context was not established by police.

This was a domestic Canadian arson, not an act of foreign state hybrid warfare or organized terrorism. The RCMP confirmed the exterior fire was deliberately set but publicly stated no motive, and the reviewed reporting shows no suspect identified or charge laid. The timing within the summer 2021 wave of fires and vandalism at Canadian churches, following residential-school grave announcements, offers plausible context, but any link to that wave remains speculative and was not officially established. Note that the building affected is the former St. Andrew's United site, merged into Trinity United in 2018; no separate same-day St. Andrew's fire could be independently verified.