West Shore RCMP is urging residents to be vigilant while they investigate an arson to a single-family home, which went up in flames in the early morning of Tuesday, Jan. 7.
Just past midnight, RCMP officers responded to a report of a fire at a home on the 300 block of Damon Drive in View Royal, and the View Royal Fire Department was already on scene.
"All occupants of the home were safely evacuated. The home did sustain significant damage and police are investigating this fire as an arson," noted a news release from the RCMP.
The Serious Crimes Unit of the West Shore RCMP is in charge of the investigation and will work alongside fire department investigators.
According to Cpl. Nancy Saggar, the fire is thought to have spread to the inside of the home from the outside.
“So there's damage both inside and outside the home,” said Saggar at a press conference. “But again, the circumstances lead us to believe that this is intentional.”
“The magnitude of the blaze and … how quickly it spread, that really tells us that this is intentional,” she added.
The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation, said Saggar who was unable to confirm if the fire was a random attack or targeted.
“We don't have any suspects or description at this point to share,” she added.
She noted the family, with an undisclosed number of youths, were fully cooperating with the investigation.
While police determine the motive for the arson, Saggar says residents in the area should remain vigilant and report suspicious activity to police immediately.
“We can't say for certain that the public is not at risk,” said Saggar, who described the incident as “very concerning.”
“We don’t have arson like this generally happen in this area,” she said. “It's the first of this magnitude that I can really recall in a long time.”
Police are asking for the public's assistance in the investigation. Anyone with a dash camera who drove in and around the area of Damon Drive between 10 p.m., Jan. 6 and 3 a.m. Jan. 7 is asked to call RCMP at 250-474-2264.
“At this point, we don't know if the footage that you have will help us, said Saggar. “However, we're going to be combing through it, along with video canvassing the entire area, the residences and the businesses along that location to try to piece together what happened.”
