The London police arson squad is looking for occupants of a dark vehicle seen just before the outbreak of a Sunday fire that caused $2 million in damage and sent four firefighters to hospital.
Police don’t have any suspects but said a dark vehicle was seen leaving the scene — an industrial plaza at 300 Exeter Rd. — just before the fire broke out.
Police responded to the scene when burglar alarms tripped at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday. They arrived to see smoke and flames coming from the Mr. Mechanic shop at the south end of the building and notified fire crews.
The fire soon spread through an adjacent wheel repair shop and an autobody business two doors north.
London fire department platoon chief Paul Carew said four firefighters were sent to hospital within 10 minutes of arriving.
Carew said the firefighters were still setting up to battle the blaze when they were overcome by noxious fumes.
Carew said there was auto paint and gasoline, along with highly explosive propane and acetylene present in the building.
He said the crew hadn’t donned its breathing apparatus when the wind turned around, sending the smoke and fumes their way.
Two of the firefighters have been released while two remain in hospital awaiting the results of blood tests.
The department might consider a change of policy and require firefighters to put on the breathing gear even as they set up for action, Carew said.
Reached by phone, the owner of Mr. Mechanic would not identify himself by name. He described the fire as “devastating and overwhelming.” He declined further comment because the fire is under investigation.
Rob Shearer, owner of London Wheel Repair — the shop next door to Mr. Mechanic that specializes in restoring aluminum wheels — hasn’t put a dollar figure on the damage, but he’s not hopeful.
“I think it’s destroyed,” he said, looking through the shattered windows of his charred shop on Monday. “It’s my family’s life savings, so we don’t know where to go from here.”
From the rear of the shop, shelves of mag wheels, charred and melted under the heat, could be seen.
Shearer, looking weary after being up much of the night watching his livelihood go up in flames, said he heard small explosions from the building as the fire progressed.
Even by 10 a.m. Monday, firefighters were still dousing hot spots among the ashes.
Much of the cinder block south wall of the shop collapsed under the extreme heat and high pressure fire hoses. A Chevy Metro sedan parked next to the wall was crushed, its roof flattened, under a pile of the blocks.
The tin roof of the building also sagged and collapsed into the shop.
Carew said the chemicals in the building made the blaze a special challenge for crews.
“We had to be very circumspect in our attack, so as not to endanger our firefighters,” Carew said.
Det.-Const. David Ellyatt said police are treating the fire as “suspicious,” but are not calling it arson. He said the building is still too structurally unstable to do a full investigation.
Ellyatt hopes witnesses will come forward to fill in the blanks.
“There seem to have been a lot of people around when it happened, but they were all gone by the time the fire was under control.”
Ellyatt asked anyone with information to call London police at 519-661-5670 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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via London Free Press.
