Fire that destroyed Inkerman bridge suspicious, RCMP say

A fire that destroyed a walking bridge in Inkerman on Thursday has been deemed suspicious by RCMP.

The converted train bridge, which was part of the Sentier Trail System and about 500 metres long, was used year round by pedestrians, cyclists, snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles on the Acadian Peninsula.

"That bridge is condemned and there's nothing we can do for a very, very long time," said Cpl. Sébastien Decaens of the Northeast District RCMP.

• Fire destroys multi-use bridge in Inkerman

Police warned the public to avoid the bridge area altogether because it's unsafe.

"At night we want to make sure that people are aware that that bridge has collapsed," he said.

He said only part of the northside of the bridge, coming from the Evangeline area, is still intact.

"You might think there's something there, but it's unsafe," he said.  

Government spokesperson Jean Bertin called the fire sad news, and said two departments, Energy and Resource Development and Environment and Local Government, will assess the crossing before a decision is made about its future.

"The priority at hand will be to clean up and secure the surrounding area of the bridge fire," Bertin wrote in an email.

Decaens said RCMP stayed overnight to make sure the public didn't use the bridge and the fire didn't spread.

"The bridge has collapsed completely," he said. "The fire's pretty much done but in the middle, you can see things are still burning, the tide started to wash away the wood."  

No one was injured in the fire.

Stéphane Hébert, assistant fire chief in Shippagan, said the flames appeared shortly after 3 p.m. and were put out by 7:30 p.m.

About 25 members of the Shippagan and Caraquet departments battled the fire, and the Department of Energy and Resource Development was also on the scene.

The Fire Marshal's Office and the RCMP's canine unit have been helping with the investigation.

Anyone with information about what happened can call the RCMP.