It’s been two days since the investigation began into a suspicious fire that took place early Friday morning in Aldershot.
Engineers and investigators from the Office of the Fire Marshal are on-site sifting through debris from what is now being classified as an explosion.
The Office of the Fire Marshal confirmed that the people living in the home were not there when the fire broke out, but it did destroy the house and cause major damage to a neighboring property.
At around 3 a. m. on Friday, police and fire crews responded to calls about a large fire at a residence on Clearview Avenue. Officials report that significant harm was done to the adjacent home before they managed to control it.
“We do know that there was a house explosion. We do have Ontario fire marshal investigators on scene along with Burlington fire. They will be combing through the evidence and the debris to find the origin and cause of the circumstance,” said Jim Demetriou, spokesperson from the Office of the Fire Marshal.
Residents in the area are worried this incident occurred so close to their homes.
: Halton police investigating suspicious house fire in Burlington
CHCH News spoke with a witness who preferred not to appear on camera, mentioning they saw a black truck leave the residence about 20 minutes prior to the explosion. This truck has reportedly been seen at that home before. The fire marshal confirmed this information will be part of their investigation.
The Burlington Fire Department requested assistance from the Office of the Fire Marshal for two main reasons: There was an explosion and damages totaled over $500,000.
“We’ve seen house fires in Aldershot and certainly in my ward and throughout Burlington, but houses exploding is rare,” said Kelvin Galbraith, Burlington Ward 1 councillor.
Investigators are working hard to determine what caused an explosion and fire that leveled a Burlington home Friday morning (Danielle de Graauw/CHCH News).
Galbraith lives near where the house used to stand. He expressed concern about this happening in his neighborhood.
“My wife was woken up just before 3 a. m. from the blast. She thought it was thunder,” said Galbraith.
Soon after, authorities knocked on their door asking them to prepare for evacuation.
“So I asked him what for, and he said there’s a fire in your backyard, look, and he pointed. I looked out my back window and sure enough, the flames were higher than this house here. They were 40 feet in the air,” said Galbraith.
CHCH News reached out to detectives with Halton police regarding this case; they informed us they’re waiting for the Office of the Fire Marshal to complete its final report before proceeding further.
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