‘Significant amount of damage’: 1 dead after suspicious fire at Oshawa home

One person is dead after a suspicious fire at an Oshawa home on Monday that appears to have started in multiple spots, the city’s fire chief says.

Oshawa fire crews were called out to a fire at a home on Court Street, near Simcoe Street South and Olive Avenue, around 10 a.m.

When they arrived, fire chief Derrick Clark says the house was in flames.

“They made an aggressive attack of this fire. And they subsequently contained it to the one unit here and kept it from spreading,” he said.

But it was soon after that they located a deceased person inside.

“There’s a significant amount of damage inside and at this time, I can confirm we have one fatality,” said Clark.

“At this time, we believe it was just the one occupant,” he added.

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There’s little information about the victim, their injuries, or what may have caused the fire, but the chief is calling the fire suspicious due to several factors, including that they couldn’t locate just one point of origin.

“Based on the location of the fire and the initial report of our initial attack crews, we’re looking at potentially multiple locations,” he said.

While the fire is concerning for some in the area, others, like Howie Weir, say they’re not surprised.

Weir owns several properties in the area, including the parking lot across the street.

“99 Court Street is a drug house,” he alleged, while describing the many issues he says he’s dealt with in the area.

“There would be 10 cars an hour, in and out, in and out.”

He says along with drugs, they have also had issues with prostitution and other problems on the street.

“I kept chasing them out of the parking lot, and chasing them out again. The behaviour was unruly,” he said.

It’s not the first time police have been there either. Three years ago one man was arrested at the home with a full tactical team.

This was in connection to a bank robbery that happened in the region.

Those owners have since moved out, but Weir says the problems have continued.

“It’s pretty sad. It’s upsetting, it’s somebody’s child, but I don’t know — this drug thing, we got to do something about it,” he said.

Oshawa Fire officials say they will also be looking into what the circumstances were at the property prior to the fire.

Police are now canvassing the area to try and get more information about the incident.

A post-mortem is scheduled for Tuesday to try and figure out exactly how the person died.

The Ontario Fire Marshall’s Office is also investigating the cause of the blaze.