Two years for Chilliwack arsonist who torched home with three children inside
Alexander Dumyn, who suffers from mental health challenges, set fire to occupied house at Charles and First in 2020
Alexander Dumyn was sentenced to 783 days jail on Sept. 8, 2025, for the 2020 arson in the middle of the night of a house on the corner of Charles Street and First Avenue where a family of five was living.
It was early hours Oct. 25, 2020 when Dumyn was at the Salvation Army on Yale Road in Chilliwack. He ordered a woman he knew to let him into her car and drive him to the Circle K at Young Road and First Avenue.
There he purchased a jerrycan and filled it with gas after which the woman drove him to the corner of Charles Street and First Avenue. That's where Dumyn went around back, doused the porch with gasoline and lit it on fire.
Sleeping inside the small house was Cathy Dick and four other people, including three children.
Firefighters managed to get the family out and knock the fire down, but only after substantial damage was caused to the main floor.
Dumyn was arrested and charged with arson in relation to inhabited property and the case floundered for years for a number of reasons, not least of which was Dumyn's frequent non-appearances prompting warrants for his arrest. Warrants were issued May 4, 2021 then on June 11 and Sept. 21 in 2021, then on May 31, 2022 and again on what was supposed to be the first day of his trial on July 28, 2022. Warrants were issued for Dumyn again on March 7, 2023 and Jan. 17, 2024.
He was finally found guilty by Judge Kristen Mundstock on Aug. 6, 2024.
Defence counsel Jayse Reveley told Judge Mundstock in February 2025 about Dumyn's mental health issues, which include schizophrenia.
Dumyn attended wearing baggy jeans, a puffy light blue jacket, scruffy brown hair and beard. He shuffled his feet as he left the courtroom after the appearance.
Mundstock ordered a psychological report to assess his future risk specifically with respect to any diagnosis of mental illness.
No motive was ever offered for the fire, nor was it explained whether Dumyn knew Dick and/or other in the house or not.
Dumyn has no other provincial criminal charges in British Columbia prior to this offence, according to Court Services Online.
-30-
Paul J. Henderson
pauljhenderson@gmail.com
facebook.com/PaulJHendersonJournalist
instagram.com/wordsarehard_pjh
x.com/PeeJayAitch
wordsarehard-pjh.bsky.social