The union representing correctional officers at Ottawa's jail says one of its members is living in fear after his car appeared to be firebombed last weekend in what the union contends was a targeted attack.

Union local president Denis Collin is accusing the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services of not doing enough to try to keep the officer and his family safe.

The correctional officer's Pontiac Sunfire was parked on a residential street in Orléans on Sunday night when it caught fire around 11 p.m. Collin said the officer noticed the driver's side window had been smashed. The correctional officer was also led to believe the fire was likely set with a Molotov cocktail, according to Collin.

The Ottawa police arson squad said it is investigating the suspicious fire, but tests to confirm the exact cause will likely take several months. The OPP and RCMP are monitoring the investigation and available to provide assistance.

"We really believe this was deliberately done and this officer was targeted," said Collin, himself a correctional officer and the president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union local that represents officers at the jail on Innes Road.

Tammy Carson, the chair of OPSEU’s provincial health and safety committee, said the officer had been threatened by a former inmate. The threat wasn’t specific, but it was direct, Carson said.

Since the fire, the OPP's Justice Officials Protection and Investigations Service provided the officer with video cameras to set up around his home for seven days, Collin said. The jail has agreed to pay the $10 it would cost for the Wi-Fi needed to ensure their operation, but the ministry has done next to nothing to help keep the officer safe, Collin said.

Carson said she requested the correctional officer’s information be suppressed so he can’t be searched by his licence plate and that he be provided a rental car, not only to replace the car that was destroyed but also to make it harder for anyone to track him. Carson said the ministry told her they’d “look into it.”

“When your car gets blown up in your driveway, it’s a pretty major concern,” said Carson. “It gets pretty personal when it goes to your home or where your family is.”

While the ministry did not immediately reply to a request for further information about what steps, if any, they have taken to assist the officer, Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Yasir Naqvi called the situation “very serious” on Friday morning.

“We take it very seriously,” said Naqvi. “We also want to make sure that our staff, our correctional officer, his health and safety is protected.”

Naqvi said the ministry is offering employee assistance, although he wasn’t aware whether additional security was being offered to the correctional officer because it was an operational issue.

“We take their health and safety very, very seriously. They do have a very difficult job,” he said. “Their health and safety is our number one priority.”

The officer did not wish to be interviewed when Postmedia visited him at his home earlier this week.

Collin said he believes management at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre provided the limited amount of assistance that they could, but that the ministry should do more.

"The ministry doesn't protect their own employees in a situation like this," said Collin. "We are outraged. What will it take next, will it be somebody in the hospital or getting killed for the ministry to do something?"

Collin said it's not unusual for correctional officers to be threatened on the job.

"You get accustomed to the fact it is part of the dialogue inside the institution," he said.

While police have examined the car, there is currently no known evidence linking the fire to the correctional officer's job.

"Usually there is a message attached to (a firebomb)," said Collin. "This employee is still in fear and his family is in fear. We want a lot more to protect him."

Collin said OPSEU would like to see the ministry contact the officer to discuss exactly what measures the officer believes he needs to ensure his safety and the safety of his family.