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Chris Morris
Telegraph-Journal

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FREDERICTON - A suspicious fire has destroyed a section of the infamous Kingsclear correctional complex near Fredericton, but one former inmate says he's surprised the whole thing hasn't gone up in smoke.

Enlarge Photo

The Daily Gleaner/Ray Bourgeois

Firefighters from several fire departments battled a large blaze that distroyed a building at the Kings Clear Central Reformatory. The Police are treating the fire as suspicious.

Fire crews responded to reports of a fire on Monday in a former adult dormitory at the Kingsclear reformatory. The burned building is located near the long-closed training school that has become notorious for its history of child sexual abuse.

RCMP officials say the fire is suspicious because there's been no power to the building for years.

"They got the wrong building," John Fearon, a former resident of the training school, said after being told of the reformatory fire.

"Why the training school building is still standing, I'll never know. The whole thing should be destroyed."

Fearon said he's a victim of former Kingsclear guard Karl Toft who admitted to abusing up to 200 boys at the facility over a 20-year span from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Three people were charged in connection with abuse at the school and two were convicted, including Toft who pleaded guilty to 34 counts in 1992 and was sentenced to 13 years in jail.

There have been allegations from victims that more individuals connected to the facility were involved in the abuse of hundreds of boys, but none of the claims has been proven.

Fearon said Toft worked at the reformatory as well as at the training school.

"Those buildings are like a dark cloud hanging over New Brunswick," Fearon said in an interview from Toronto, where he now lives.

"It's a constant reminder of the suffering endured by hundreds of boys."

RCMP Sgt. Claude Tremblay said the building that burned on Monday has been sitting empty for about 22 years. He said it was owned by the New Brunswick government.

"The investigation is continuing," he said.

Toft completed his 13-year sentence in 2005. He now lives in Edmonton under strict restrictions imposed by a judge.