Police are investigating a suspicious fire in downtown London, Ont., early Wednesday.
Around 1 a.m., multiple vehicles were reported on fire in the parking lot of a business in the 700 block of York Street, between Lyle Street and Rectory Street.
Video obtained by Global News showed the fire had spread to vehicles at U-Haul Moving & Storage of Western Fair at 745 York St.
Kirk Loveland, platoon chief with the London Fire Department, a damage estimate is still under investigation but at least six vehicles were destroyed, and several others were damaged by the blaze.
“This was a tough fire for the crews to fight because you had a bunch of vehicles all parked near one another,” he said. “Once one gets going, they can all extend into the others so it was a tough battle for the firefighters to put out that blaze.”
While no injuries were reported, police say the fire was “suspicious in nature” and an individual was taken into custody.
In a statement to Global News, David Anstett, U-Haul Company of Western Ontario president, said that “the person who committed this crime was siphoning fuel from U-Haul trucks” at the location, reporting that there were gas cans on site as well as tools used for siphoning fuel.
Police have not confirmed this information.
“We are not happy about it, but hopefully the person has been caught and this won’t happen again,” he wrote. “We are still operating and serving customers at our Western Fair store. The trucks that were destroyed or damaged are being removed from the lot today, and it’s business as usual.
“We want to thank the London community for its support.”
The investigation is ongoing.
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