Nearly six years after police say a fire was deliberately set inside a Metro Vancouver hospital, a 29-year-old Alberta man has been charged with arson. Court records show Yu Yun Wang faces one count of arson at an inhabited property in connection with the fire at Burnaby Hospital on the evening of Nov. 15, 2020. The fire forced people to flee the hospital, while emergency department admissions were suspended and patients were diverted to other health centres. Medical appointments and surgeries were rescheduled and the Burnaby RCMP estimated the total damage was in the millions. The hospital was dealing with multiple internal COVID-19 outbreaks at the time, in which dozens of patients and dozens more staff members would be infected before the spread was brought under control. Mounties said Thursday that an arson suspect was identified in the summer of 2023. By then, the suspect had moved to Alberta and the Burnaby RCMP worked with the Edmonton Police Service and the Strathcona County RCMP to further the investigation. The B.C. Prosecution Service approved the arson charge against Wang on Sept. 8. He is currently in custody in Alberta on unrelated charges, according to police. Burnaby RCMP Chief Supt. Bill Parmar says the lengthy investigation “is a testament to the dedication of the many officers involved” in the case over the years. In November 2021, one year after the fire, the Burnaby RCMP estimated that 50 officers had reviewed more than 1,500 hours of surveillance video as part of the investigation. “Our investigators were determined to find answers following this incident which had a major impact on our local hospital and community, at a time when our health care system was already coping with the COVID-19 pandemic,” Parmar said in a statement.
