Prince Edward County house fire deemed suspicious

Firefighters in Prince Edward County were called to an abandoned home on County Road 15 Monday evening. The fire was discovered by a resident along the sparsely populated road on the northern edge of the county.

“It is an isolated location,” Ontario Fire Marshal Investigator William Hay said.

“The glow that the fire was causing alerted him, and when he attended he also noted that there was fire confined to the rear or north end of the house,” Hay added.

Investigators have deemed the fire to be suspicious because the home has been abandoned for a few years, but it was still connected to hydro at the time of the fire. 

“We’re at the stage of the fire where we’re determining area of origin,” said Hay. Although the cause of the fire is still unknown, Hay doesn’t expect the site investigation to last longer than Tuesday evening.

“We’ll make some excavation and possibly gather some samples to see if there was possibly an accelerant added to assist the fire’s growth,” Hay said.