The arrest Thursday of two suspects in Wasaga Beach's worst fire on record has helped put some closure to the November 2007 disaster.
"It's a load off my shoulders. It had been hanging over our heads for along time and it will be nice to get this behind us," Wasaga Beach Mayor Cal Patterson said, Friday.
"The fact that the suspects were not from Wasaga Beach was a relief. There were always some insinuations about who it might have been," he added.
Two young men charged with setting the massive fire that destroyed a historic section of the town's waterfront are also facing a string of other charges involving fires.
Andrew Paulino, 21 of Barrie, and an 18-year-old Midhurst man sat in the prisoner's box yesterday in Barrie and waved at their parents after being charged with arson and break and enter in connection to the fire.
The younger man cannot be identified because he was under 18 at the time of the offence. He was released from jail and sent home with his parents with a March 5 court date. Paulino was denied bail and has a Feb. 23 court date.
About 20 businesses in the pedestrian mall were destroyed, causing an estimated $5 million damage. No one was injured.
In following months there was much speculation over the cause of the suspicious fire, especially after the area was soon after slated for a massive new development in the next couple of years.
While the investigation into the fire olice in Barrie, Innisfil and Springwater Township were conducting their own investigation into a string of other fires where six vehicles were broken into and then torched in November and December of 2007.
Paulino was already out on bail and had a court date set for later this month to deal with the earlier charges as well as several theft and possession of stolen property offences when suddenly he was rearrested and charged with the Wasaga Beach arson.
Police won't say how the evidence eventually linked the crimes, and there was a ban on publication of the evidence heard at the bail hearing.
Wasaga Beach residents and business operators were shocked at the destruction.
"We lost a lot of history in those buildings," Patterson said." I was there watching it burn, so I did experience the whole thing. There were a lot of flashbacks and memories," he said, adding "now there's a lot of pavement and a lot of Unilock."
Coun. George Watson, community services committee chair, said residents have wanted to see some resolution to fire's investigation.
"It's been a question hovering over the community for the last 15 months, so I think there is some closure to it," he said, of the arrests," he said. "We had lots of questions (about the fire) asked of us in council. We were looking for answers and now we have one."
Patterson said the spectacular blaze -- involving more than 100 firefighters from eight municipalities -- inadvertently focused international attention on Wasaga Beach.
"It aroused interest from developers and brought attention to what (kind of place) the beach is," he said, adding there was some confusion in various media that the whole beach area was destroyed.
"It took a lot of work to get the message out that we were open and ready for business," he said.
Watson agrees that much work was done to promote the beach as a destination again.
"There was a lot of negative publicity about it so we had a struggle over that. But the town and Blue Beach Ave did a good job of repatriating the site," he said. The corporation constructed a 27-metre-wide geodesic dome which seats more than 750 people and can be used for large events.
"We had a lot of people up last summer and they saw how good the town looked. Now it's onward and upward and we're looking forward to a good summer," Watson said.
The Enterprise Bulletin Ian McInroy & Tracey McLauglin Article ID# 1439327