UPDATE | Fire at former Ridgeway high school deemed arson: police

UPDATE | August 10, 2026 @ 8:32 p.m.: Niagara Regional Police confirmed the fire at the former Ridgeway-Crystal Beach High School is being investigated as arson. Police are asking nearby residents and businesses to review surveillance footage and report anything suspicious.

ORIGINAL STORY | August 10, 2026 @ 8:57 a.m.: Fort Erie’s fire chief says the overnight fire that tore through the former Ridgeway-Crystal Beach High School is “suspicious,” and the heritage-protected 1927 facade–the only piece of the school meant to survive demolition–will likely have to come down.

Volunteer firefighters were called to the vacant school at 576 Ridge Road shortly after 1 a.m. Monday and worked through the night to contain the blaze. Fire Chief Mark Schmitt told Fort Erie Radio live from the scene Monday morning that no firefighters or members of the public have been injured.

“We’re definitely deeming it as suspicious currently,” Schmitt said.

All services to the building were shut off and the last demolition workers left the site Friday, according to Schmitt. Any activity that could have started the fire “would likely be from a human origin,” he said.

Schmitt said the Office of the Fire Marshal, the provincial agency with the equipment and expertise to determine how fires start, is stretched thin across several other investigations and judged the chance of finding a cause and prosecuting anyone at the school to be slim.

That facade is protected under the Ontario Heritage Act and was to be restored and built into a subdivision of 113 new homes planned for the property. It survived the fire and remains standing, but Schmitt said safety will likely force its removal.

“We’re certainly gonna work at it from the back of the building as much as we can, but just for safety reasons, it’ll likely have to come down,” he said.

Schmitt said demolition had left holes in the floors and other hazards, so the department ran a “defensive operation” from the start, hitting the fire with elevated water streams from outside.

“We’ll risk a lot to save a lot, and we’ll risk a little to save a little, and we’ll risk nothing to save nothing,” he said.

An excavator took down a wall Monday morning to give crews better access to hotspots, and the contractor already demolishing the school is using its machines to help pull the building apart. Schmitt expects crews to remain on scene for most of the day.

Every firefighter who battled the blaze is a volunteer, and most had to leave the scene within hours to report to their full-time jobs, Schmitt said.

“If you know a volunteer firefighter, thank them for their service,” he said.

Schmitt hopes crews will learn more about the fire’s origin once the building is safe to examine, but he said the best information will likely come from the first callers and from passersby who saw something. He asked residents to stay away from the site while crews are still working.

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