Fighting Island fire deemed accidental

A fire seen on Fighting Island across from LaSalle on April 13, 2019 (Photo by AM800's Gord Bacon)

The cause of a massive fire on Fighting Island has been ruled accidental.

LaSalle Fire Chief Dave Sutton says they still don’t know what triggered the April 13 fire but they know it was not intentionally set.

“We looked at all the possible scenarios and we’ve determined that it was an accidental fire,” says Sutton.

The fire destroyed up to 300 acres of marshland and boardwalks on the nature preserve that took firefighters nearly six hours to battle.

The island hosts educational programming for schools across Windsor-Essex.

Sutton adds they have been in conversation with BASF, which owns the island.

“We’ve been in touch with the folks on the island and the marsh is actually starting to re-generate,” adds Sutton. “It’s been a great growing year as far as that goes so we are very pleased that there wasn’t any further damage.”

The fire attracted hundreds of onlookers to the LaSalle Marina and the flames could be seen as far away as Amherstburg.

No one was injured.