Deliberately set fire destroys St. Stephen apartment building

The RCMP say the fire that destroyed the vacant apartment building at 449 Milltown Boulevard, St. Stephen, was deliberately set. The emergency call to the former Starshine Properties Ltd. building, which had been sold at a tax auction on October 17, came in at 4:05 a.m.

"Based on what we found when we got there, it had been going a little while, maybe half an hour or something like that," says Fire Chief Sean Morton, who added that about 20 firefighters from St. Stephen and Calais spent 4 1/2 hours fighting the blaze. Nobody was hurt and no other properties were damaged, but the eight‑unit apartment building is gone.

At the municipal district council's monthly committee‑of‑the‑whole meeting on January 14, Councillor Marg Harding thanked emergency responders for stopping the fire from spreading. but Morton said it was St. Stephen's Tower 1 ladder truck that allowed the firefighters to save the neighbourhood.

The former Town of St. Stephen acquired Tower 1, a Pierce Enforcer allowing firefighters to spray water from 110 feet in the air, at a cost of about $1.5 million in 2022. "If not for Tower 1, the Denture Clinic, probably the Haley place, probably several of the houses in that direct area, they all may have been lost," the fire chief told councillors, adding, "It doesn't get used every day but, when we do use it, it is a powerful tool, and anybody that was up there seeing what we were doing would be impressed with what we were able to do because of that."

The RCMP issued a news release calling the fire a suspected arson and seeking the public's help solving it. "Through the investigation, it was determined that the fire had been intentionally set. No one was living in the building at the time of the fire," the release states. Anyone who has information that could help further the investigation should contact the St. Stephen RCMP at 506‑466‑7030. Information can also be provided anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1‑800‑222‑TIPS (8477).

Electrical service was disconnected from the building, and no homeless people were staying there at the time, Morton says. "We hadn't been having issues with homeless at that location for some time. We had in the past but, recently, not so much," says the fire chief, mentioning that the Lighthouse Lodge shelter on Main Street has eased the issue of unsheltered people in St. Stephen.

"That's unfortunate," he says, concerning the fire, adding, "We worked hard to save that because, you know, it was a valuable piece of housing in our community." He says that he might have expected something such as this to happen to this property two years ago, but not with new owners in the process of legally acquiring title following the tax sale. The prospective new owners had already started work on the building, according to Morton.

Starshine properties auctioned off

This apartment building was one of about 20 rental properties that Starshine Properties, owned by Annette Penkala of Calgary, Alberta, bought in St. Stephen in 2020 and 2021. The property at 449 Milltown Boulevard sold for $200,000 in 2021, according to information available from the New Brunswick land registry. The most assessed value for tax purposes for 2026 is $239,800, with a tax levy of $4,717 for 2025.

This was one of 11 Starshine properties advertised to go on the block at public auction in Saint John on October 17 for unpaid taxes. According to land registry information, Millfield Management Ltd. of Rothesay tendered the winning bid of $125,000 at the auction. The final transfer of title had yet to happen because of rules allowing former owners time to redeem properties following tax sales, according to land registry staff.

Nobody from Millfield Management was immediately available to talk about plans for the property in light of the fire, but Morton confirms that the owners hired a local company to clean up the debris with an excavator and truck. The land registry lists a mailing address for Millfield Management at what appears to be a private residence in Rothesay.

Another former Starshine property, at 80 Union Street, St. Stephen, was set to go for public auction in Saint John on January 19. The older wood‑framed apartment building on this site, which was unoccupied and derelict at the time, burned in 2024, leaving a vacant lot fronted by Cove, Union and Rushton streets. The most recent assessed value for tax purposes was $36,500. There was no immediate information available on the outcome of the auction. There are plans for more Starshine properties to be sold for unpaid taxes. New owners may help resolve the need for more housing, especially for people with lower incomes in St. Stephen.

One other recent fire in St. Stephen around New Year's Day destroyed a wooden shed or storage building behind properties on King and Prince William streets. The building and its contents were destroyed, but nobody was injured and nobody was staying in the structure, the fire chief says.