{"id":123605,"date":"2026-07-09T22:33:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T22:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/123605\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T22:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T22:33:14","slug":"man-47-arrested-after-fire-at-winnipeg-walmart-causes-10m-in-damage-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/123605\/","title":{"rendered":"Man, 47, arrested after fire at Winnipeg Walmart causes $10M in damage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As it spread, Amigo, 47, went to a fast-food restaurant attached to the store, where he &#8220;helped himself to a beverage from the soft drink machine and sat down at one of the tables,&#8221; police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The damage caused by the blaze is estimated at more than $10 million, police say.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Fans were set up to clear out smoke at the Walmart store in St. Vital shopping centre in Winnipeg on the evening of Monday, July 6, 2025, after a fire in the store. Police said on July 9 a 47-year-old man was arrested and charged with arson in connection with the fire.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/cbc.ca\/31f13e122a38abfe26b4ab21953b1ddb.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Fans clear out smoke on Monday night. Police say 150 to 200 customers and staff had to evacuate the store. (Trevor Brine\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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<p>At the time of this week&#8217;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<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He has been detained in custody.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 47-year-old man with a prior conviction for arson has been arrested after Winnipeg police say he set&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[41565,41564,2147,84,9891],"class_list":["post-123605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-prior-conviction","tag-ronald-marmito-amigo","tag-walmart","tag-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}