A 13-year-old and 16-year-old have been arrested in connection with a major fire in the Quebec City area.
The fire took place at auto parts scrapyard Pieces d'Autos Goulet St-Emile, which deals mostly in used car parts.
A video posted to 'X' (formerly Twitter) Sunday shows the immense plume of smoke that could be seen from kilometres away over the dealer in the St-Emile area, near Wendake.
The scrapyard contained some 500 old cars, many of them piled on top of each other.
Firefighters were called to the scene around 3:30 p.m. and 30 firefighters worked until almost 8 p.m. to get the blaze under control.
People said they heard explosions regularly. Police said they were airbags, and that no gasoline, batteries or tires were left on the vehicles.
The company’s Facebook page stated that the car parts company had existed for 30 years and was closing Dec. 1.
Firefighters have confirmed that they believe the fire was intentionally started.
The 16-year-old was arrested Sunday night and has been released on a promise to appear.
The 13-year-old was arrested Monday morning and is being held ahead of their court appearance Monday afternoon. Police said the younger teen was already in the youth protection system, which is why they were not released.
Although the area around the scrapyard was blocked off to traffic on Sunday, no evacuations of homes in the area was necessary.
