Fire destroys home under renovation in Etobicoke

An investigation is underway to determine the cause of a two-alarm fire that destroyed a home under renovation in Etobicoke overnight.

Fire crews responded to a call around 3 a.m. Wednesday at 226 Beta St. near Evans Avenue and Brown’s Line.

Fire officials said the flames reached 18-metres high when firefighters arrived on scene.

“Because of the intense heat, our crews went immediately into a defensive protective exposure attack,” District Chief Chris Rowland said.

“Looking after both homes on the side until we got enough manpower on-site to actually attack the fire.”

Rowland said crews managed to extinguish the fire from the outside. The adjacent homes were evacuated as a precaution and no injuries were reported.

Fire officials said they did remove an elderly woman from a home near the fire, but she didn’t sustain any injuries.

VIDEO: West-end home gutted after suspicious overnight fire

2:43 West-end home gutted after suspicious overnight fire

A man, who said lived behind the home and helped the owner with the renovations, told Global News the residence was under construction for the past three months.

“I feel so sorry for the owner because he’s put such an amount of work and money into this build. It’s a really nice family,” Robert Sherlock said.

“They were building their own family home. This was not a home they were building to sell. It was something he was investing in.”

READ MORE: Elderly man dead after fire at North York seniors’ home

Sherlock claims the home, which was almost complete and was about to start drywalling, was the target of a minor fire last week.

“We went through the effort of securing the building up much more securely, but obviously they must have broken in, to get in, and set the house on fire,” he said.

Both fires are considered as suspicious. Sherlock said he has spoken to the owner and the family plans to rebuild.

“Obviously he was devastated by it. So he came over right away and he was in my home and it was very, very distressing for him and his family,” he said.

“I spoke with the owner and he says he’s going to do whatever it takes to make it his family home. Nobody is going to burn him out of his home.”

Officials said the home under renovation was unoccupied and was completely gutted by the fire.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation.