A series of three fires at a daycare in Montreal culminated in a pair of brazen incidents this week, in which the culprits used Molotov cocktails.
On Tuesday, a teacher at the Bebe Einstein daycare arrived at the business' northeast Montreal location to find fire damage.
Later that night, another arson attack occurred when a Molotov cocktail was thrown inside the daycare, CTV Montreal reported.
Arson investigators from the Montreal Police Service have been on the scene since the second attack on Tuesday, probing the damage and inspecting the building, which is located along a stretch of light industrial and commercial buildings.
The daycare had been shutdown since Sept. 3, when a fire was also reported at the building. The daycare was set to re-open on Tuesday when the teacher arrived to find the find the fire damage.
"Everything was done when the location was closed, and its very small damages that were done," said Montreal police Sgt. Ian Lafreniere.
There are at least two other daycares in the vicinity, and neighbours are expressing concern over the arsons.
"Sometimes we're scared, you know, because we are a daycare, too," said Hector Qunitanilla, who works at the nearby Petite Academie daycare.
Police have not speculated on what may be motivating the arson attacks, but the location does have a history with criminal investigations.
In November of 2009, when the daycare was called Garderie Bebe Lilly, police raided the site as part of a massive fraud sting that spanned both Quebec and Ontario.
The raid was part of Operation Pre-Empt, which was dubbed as the largest-ever bust of counterfeit documents in Canada's history.
Police have not linked the current arsons with the previous investigation.
