[MSN] Deliberately set fire destroys several museum artifacts. RCMP are investigating a deliberately set fire in Melfort that spread to the town's museum, destroying several historical artifacts.

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Deliberately set fire destroys several museum artifacts
  
Lana Haight 
The StarPhoenix 


Saturday, September 29, 2007


RCMP are investigating a deliberately set fire in Melfort that spread to the
town's museum, destroying several historical artifacts.

"We had a large amount of agricultural equipment in there: tractors,
combines, grain trucks, various artifacts from the old days like binders and
hay cutters, as well as an old wooden thrashing machine," said the chair of
the Melfort and District Museum's board, Ingvar Berggren.

"Everything is either charred from fire or has smoke damage."

On Friday around 7:20 a.m., Melfort's fire department was called to a fire
in a garden shed located in Prince Edward Park. The shed, owned by the
Melfort Agricultural Society, housed small items such as a lawnmower and
tools.

Within 15 minutes, strong southerly winds caused the fire to spread to the
museum's storage shed.

When police began investigating the fire later on Friday, they discovered
the agricultural society's shed had been broken into, says RCMP spokesperson
Sgt. Brad Kaeding.

"Some items were stolen from that shed and it's believed that an unknown
suspect, at this point, started the little garden shed on fire," he said.

The museum's collection was not insured as the premiums were unaffordable
for the volunteer board of directors.

Berggren isn't sure what the museum's volunteers will be able to
reconstruct. He doesn't know if replacement parts can be found for a 1942
self-propelled combine that sustained severe damage. A recently restored
home-built snowplow from the 1950s was also destroyed.

A major project for the volunteers this past summer was to built a large
extension to the museum's storage shed. Heat from the fire warped the roof
and caused other damage to the building's structure.

"That effort, to some extent, has gone up in smoke," said Berggren.

Police continue to investigate the arson as well as the break-and-enter.

lhaight at sp.canwest.com