Family's car set on fire while they were sleeping, Manitoba RCMP says

A rural Manitoba family was woken up in the middle of the night to find their car was completely engulfed in flames in what RCMP believe is a random case of arson.

Braden Hopkins and his wife were asleep when, just before 4 a.m. on Monday, they heard someone banging on their bedroom window and front door yelling that there was a fire.

"I look out of the front living room windows here and I just see an orange glow, and there's something on fire," Hopkins told CTV News.

"It's every parent's worst nightmare – a fire in the middle of the night, you don't know what's happening."

Video surveillance from earlier that night shows two people drive up to the home on Liss Road in the RM of St. Andrews around 3 a.m. The two people appear to walk up to two vehicles parked in the home's driveway and pour a liquid on them.

Manitoba RCMP say video surveillance shows two people douse a vehicle with liquid before setting it on fire in the RM of St. Andrews on May 8, 2023. (Source: Manitoba RCMP)

One of the two people appears to start a fire before they both run away.

Together Hopkins and his wife were able to get their three young children safely out of the house. Hopkins said he and his neighbour were then able to tow the car away from the home to keep the fire from spreading.

Shortly after, he said the gas tank exploded.

"There was a fireball into the sky," he said. "It wasn't really what I was expecting to wake up to today."

Manitoba RCMP is now investigating this as a suspected arson. Cpl. Julie Courchaine said it doesn't appear this was a targeted incident, but said it is still early on in the investigation.

She said the whole incident is very concerning.

"We haven't seen anything quite like this recently," Courchaine said. "This could have ended up quite differently and tragically."

Hopkins said he is thankful for the good Samaritans who saw the fire and woke them up. He said he doesn't know what would have happened if they didn't step in.

Now they are left with questions as he doesn't know who did this or why.

"I am kind of at a loss for words that someone would go out of their way to do something of that nature," he said. "They didn't touch anything. They just came and threw gasoline on both my vehicles and lit them on fire and walked away."

Anyone with information is asked to call Selkirk RCMP or Crime Stoppers.

-with files from CTV's Taylor Brock