{"id":791516,"date":"2026-07-09T22:57:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T22:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/791516\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T22:57:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T22:57:15","slug":"man-47-arrested-after-fire-at-winnipeg-walmart-causes-10m-in-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/791516\/","title":{"rendered":"Man, 47, arrested after fire at Winnipeg Walmart causes $10M in damage"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A 47-year-old man with a prior conviction for arson has been arrested after Winnipeg police say he set a fire inside the St. Vital Walmart on Monday evening, causing millions of dollars worth of damage. <\/p>\n

Police allege Ronald Marmito Amigo went to the bedding section in the St. Vital mall store just before 7 p.m. and set fire to products, according to a Thursday news release. The fire quickly spread, sending thick, black smoke through the store, according to police. <\/p>\n

As it spread, Amigo, 47, went to a fast-food restaurant attached to the store, where he “helped himself to a beverage from the soft drink machine and sat down at one of the tables,” police said.<\/p>\n

Within moments, roughly 150 to 200 customers and staff were evacuated from the store, police said. The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service responded and put the fire out.<\/p>\n

The damage caused by the blaze is estimated at more than $10 million, police say.<\/p>\n

\"AFans clear out smoke on Monday night. Police say 150 to 200 customers and staff had to evacuate the store. (Trevor Brine\/CBC)<\/p>\n

The Winnipeg police major crimes unit began investigating, and Amigo was arrested in the 300 block of Furby Street, near Portage Avenue, on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Police say he had a small amount of methamphetamine and a lighter on him when he was arrested, which were seized as evidence.<\/p>\n

Amigo has been charged with several offences, including arson with disregard for human life, arson causing damage to property and possession of incendiary material.<\/p>\n

He was also charged with theft under $5,000, possession of methamphetamine and two counts of failure to comply with a probation order.<\/p>\n

Provincial court records show Amigo pleaded guilty to a charge of arson to property a year ago and was given a 10-month jail sentence, which was largely counted as time served from the date of his arrest for that January 2025 fire. <\/p>\n

At the time of this week’s Walmart fire, Amigo was wanted for failing to attend court and was subject to a supervised probation order handed to him as a result of the arson conviction, according to the court records. <\/p>\n

He has been detained in custody.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-791516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}