A Fernwood house fire Tuesday morning that may have started with a vacuum cleaner has been deemed suspicious.
Battalion chief Gord Taylor said neighbours called emergency crews after noticing smoke coming from the Empress Street home shortly after 8 a.m. Crews entered the ground floor through a kitchen window.
“When the crews went in, they found a room that had of all things a vacuum cleaner. We believe it was a vacuum cleaner. It was burned pretty good,” Taylor said.
Firefighters removed the item and extinguished it outside. They kept the fire contained to a single room.
“Smoke stained the walls of the room where the vacuum cleaner was, but it didn’t catch the structure on fire,” Taylor said. “The damage wasn’t as bad as it could have been.”
No one was home at the time.
Taylor said department investigators deemed the fire suspicious and have turned the investigation over to Victoria police.
— Times Colonist
