An early morning fire at a plaza near Eglinton and Kennedy in Toronto is being investigated as suspicious, after crews arrived to find a vehicle ablaze and flames pushing into the building itself. What began as an overnight call quickly escalated into a scene serious enough to draw both firefighters and police, and to leave investigators looking closely at how the blaze started.
Emergency crews were called to the plaza just before 2:30 in the morning. The initial report was not only of a fire but of a break-and-enter in progress, two events unfolding at the same location at the same time. When Toronto Fire arrived, they found a vehicle on fire, with the flames already spreading into one of the units of the plaza.
Firefighters were confronted with a significant amount of smoke and flames pouring out of a ground-floor unit. Crews managed a quick knockdown of the fire, bringing it under control before it could tear through the rest of the building. Crucially, authorities confirmed that there were no serious injuries as a result of the blaze, despite the intensity of the smoke and fire.
The damage, however, was concentrated in one spot. The brunt of it was centered on a massage parlor in the plaza, a unit that was left heavily burned. Above the shops, residents live in apartment units, and some of them described hearing sounds during the fire that, as one put it, sounded like canisters going off.
It is the physical evidence at the scene that has helped push the investigation in a particular direction. A gas canister could be seen on the ground close to the burned-out vehicle where the fire took place, a detail that has drawn attention as officials try to determine exactly how the flames were set and spread through the plaza.
Adding to the concern is the site's recent history. Fire officials noted that there had been a previous incident at the location back in April, one that was treated as targeted and became an arson investigation. While the district chief declined to characterize the latest blaze himself, police have confirmed they are now investigating this fire as suspicious as well.