Carmela Aiello was asleep early Wednesday when her son began yelling that there was a fire outside.
She, her partner and their kids quickly moved to get out of the house, where the new family vehicle had blown up, Aiello told Global News. They had just got their 2020 Dodge Caravan two days prior.
Aiello opened the front door, saw “flames everywhere,” and realized that they had to leave through the back of the house.
The fire department quickly responded and extinguished the flames. For the most part, their home, located on Berwick Crescent in Richmond Hill, was spared, though the garage door and second-floor windows suffered damage. No one was injured.
York Regional Police are treating the incident as arson, the second such incident in that neighbourhood, in the Yonge Street and 16th Avenue area, in around two and a half weeks.
Const. Lisa Moskaluk told Global News that officers responded to the latest blaze at around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.
“When officers arrived on scene, they saw that Richmond Hill Fire Services were already on scene working to extinguish the fire of a vehicle that was fully engulfed in flames,” she said.
Moskaluk said officers were canvassing all day and through investigation, were able to determine that it was an arson and an accelerant was used on the vehicle.
The incident came just hours after York police sent out a news release on Tuesday, appealing for information in an arson that happened on June 10 on Estoril Street, which is one street over from where the latest arson occurred.
Police said emergency crews responded to a home at around 1:15 a.m. on June 10.
Three women were asleep in the home, when one of them heard a noise coming from outside, police said.
“When she opened the garage door, she saw her silver Subaru Crosstrek fully engulfed in flames in the driveway,” the release said.
Firefighters responded and the blaze was extinguished. It was contained to the vehicle and no injuries were reported, police said.
“Investigators reviewed video surveillance and observed a lone male suspect pour liquid over the vehicle before setting it alight and running northbound on Estoril Street,” the release said.
Police released surveillance video, showing the suspect pouring a liquid on the car before it was engulfed in flames.
Police said they’re not sure whether or not the two incidents are connected.
“It is too early to say whether the two are connected or what the motive is,” Moskaluk said. “We are asking that anybody that lives in the area or anyone that may have seen anything suspicious in the area to contact us.”
Aiello said the fire she experienced overnight was “terrifying.”
“I don’t know what happened or why it happened,” she said. “We learned that it happened down the street … we can’t sleep easy like that. We need more cameras, more monitoring.”
She has lived in the neighbourhood for 22 years, said it’s a “great” place to live and there hasn’t been incidents like this before.
“I just hope the police find who is doing this and we get justice,” she said. “And we can sleep easy at night because it’s not an easy feeling thinking that you were targeted.”
She said they were “very lucky” that no one got hurt.
“Lucky the fire department was here very quickly and it didn’t go any further,” she said.
— With files from Sean O’Shea