Arson charge laid in Loon Lake church fire: RCMP

A 25-year-old man is facing an arson charge in connection with a fire that destroyed a church in Loon Lake in September.

The St. George Anglican Church, which had stood since 1939, went up in flames on September 28, burning the building and everything inside. The only remnants of the structure after the blaze was a weathered sign where the front entrance once stood.

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Nobody was inside the building at the time and no injuries were reported, but police quickly declared the fire suspicious.

According to the RCMP, a 25-year-old resident of the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation was arrested on Saturday and is now facing an arson charge, along with one count of breaching a conditional sentence order.

Police said the 25-year-old made his first court appearance on Monday in Meadow Lake.

A number of churches were burned in Saskatchewan and across Canada following the discovery of suspected unmarked graves at former residential school sites in 2021 and the years since.

At the time of the fire Brian Hirschfeld, Loon Lake’s mayor, said the church was iconic in the village, and council had at one time considered applying for heritage status for the building.

–with files from MeadowLakeNOW