Fire guts vacant house
Two fire departments battle suspicious blaze in North Sydney
A suspicious fire gutted a vacant duplex home on Forrest Street early Tuesday morning and threatened several nearby homes.
The fire broke out shortly after 3 a.m.
The North Sydney Volunteer Fire Department initially responded and later received relief and assistance from the nearby Sydney Mines Volunteer Fire Department.
“The building was fully involved inside,” North Sydney Chief Lloyd MacIntosh said about the circumstances when firefighters arrived on the scene.
“The building was completely secure, everything was boarded up. We had to pull off the covers over the doors and windows to get in.”
The fire kept the firefighters outside and they fought the blaze from the outside for most of their time on the scene.
One firefighter was briefly treated for smoke inhalation before returning to the scene, but outside of some slips and falls in icy conditions there were no other injuries of note.
The burned-out building was once two housing units at the civic addresses of 5 and 7 Forrest Street. While both sides of that building were empty, the fire did pose a considerable risk to neighbouring homes that are occupied.
“There was one house to the backside that is one foot away and then there is a house across the driveway from it that is eight feet (away),” said MacIntosh, noting that neither of the occupied homes appear to have been damaged.
The fire initially lit the dark sky in the early morning hours and could be seen from several kilometres away. By 7 a.m., equipment from both fire departments were soaking down what was left of the burned-out building.
MacIntosh said they are calling the fire “suspicious in nature for now” and the scene is being monitored by security.
An investigation will be conducted by the North Sydney fire department, the Office of the Fire Marshal and the Cape Breton Regional Police.