One man is in hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries after a suspicious fire overnight in north London, Ont.
Emergency crews were called to a fire on Blackmaple Drive, near Highbury Avenue and Kilally Road, at around 3:30 a.m. Thursday, but arrived to find one of the occupants had already extinguished the fire.
However, a second person was removed from the residence and taken to hospital by paramedics.
While police have not said what caused the fire, they believe it to be “suspicious in nature”, prompting an arson investigation by members of the street crime unit with assistance from the fire department.
Gary Mosburger, platoon chief manager with the London Fire Department, was not on scene but said that he was told it was a “smaller fire.” The London Police Service is reporting damage of $5,000.
Mosburger said the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office has been notified “because of circumstances around the fire” but it is not yet clear if the office will be sending someone to the scene.
Regardless, local fire investigators and members of the London Police Service will return to the house Thursday afternoon to continue investigating the cause and circumstances of the fire, Mosburger said.
“Once they’re able to kind of get into the the depths of those causes and stuff like that,” Mosburger explained, “there’ll be more to share at that point as appropriate.”