Investigators are looking into the circumstances around a “suspicious” townhouse fire that gutted at least one unit and displaced several residents in Pickering early this morning.
Crews were first called to the area of Valley Farm Road, located near Bayly Street and Liverpool Road, for a reported car fire at around 2:40 a.m.
Pickering Fire Service Platoon Chief Paul Bender said when trucks arrived on scene, the fire had spread to three of the 10 townhomes in the complex.
“The guys worked really hard and did a great job on knocking it down so we didn’t lose any other units further down,” he noted.
“There was (sic) no injuries to firefighters or civilians. The people that live in the (units) were all identified and removed from the building.”
Officials have not yet been able to provide a damage estimate but the Red Cross has been called in to assist displaced residents.
One resident, who identified herself only as Georgia, said she was first alerted to the fire after she heard an explosion.
"Basically my sister told us to run out of the house with her son. We ran out," she said.
"There was a big explosion... The car blew up and it blew up the whole house."
Reports from the scene suggest the windows of multiple vehicles in the area appear to have been smashed at some point overnight.
In a news release issued Wednesday morning, the Durham Regional Police Service said it appears the fire is suspicious in nature.
Police are asking anyone with video surveillance footage to contact police or Crime Stoppers anonymously.
The Office of the Fire Marshal has been called in to investigate and Tom Hoppe, an investigator with the OFM, confirmed that the fire is believed to have started in a vehicle.
“Where it started in the vehicle and how it started in the vehicle, we don’t know that at this point in time,” Hoppe told reporters at the scene.
“I have to go through the vehicle and I haven’t had an opportunity to do that yet.”
Hoppe said they will be looking to see if there were any faults with the vehicle, including faulty or damaged wiring.
Due to the materials in the vehicle, Hoppe said the fire spread very quickly.
“All your contents in home, your couches and all that are polyurethane and so the fire spreads,” he said.
“That’s why it is important to have smoke alarms in your house, so you can hear them ringing so you can get out of the house quickly, because the fire does spread very quickly.”
