DEREK RUTTAN [email protected] Police suspect arson in a fire at Strano’s Bakery early Sunday morning.
Working the counter this holiday weekend at Strano’s, the Italian bakery and supermarket, Teresa Arena is giving thanks just for still being in business.
London firefighters answered an alarm at the store Saturday night at about 8 p.m. to extinguish a fire that investigators say was deliberately set in an apartment unit at the rear of the store that has been a London landmark for 45 years.
“We are just so relieved,” said Arena, slicing meat for customers Sunday at the store’s deli counter.
“We have been here 45 years. I grew up here,” said the daughter of the owners. “If there was a fire, we would have been lost, shocked. I don’t know where we would have gone.”
London police and the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office were at the store and apartment at 81 William St. Saturday night and Sunday, investigating the blaze.
They found a second floor window had been broken into and a fire was set in three different parts of the apartment.
However, damage was limited to less than $5,000 as firefighters responded to an alarm after the blaze was set.
“It appears to have been intentionally lit. The fires started on the second floor, two in a front room and a third near some stairs,” said London fire department platoon Chief Syd Gatenby.
“It is another arson we can add to the list.”
Last month, a string of serious fires caused a combined $1.1 million in damage. The city has been plagued by more than two dozen arsons starting in late March and continuing through the summer, although police said they’re likely the work of several people or groups .
“There was minimal damage, but we are still treating this fire as suspicious now,” said London Police Det. Greg Blumson.
via Owners grateful bakery left unscathed | London | News | London Free Press.
