A New Hamburg family was on vacation in Ottawa when their home erupted in fire early Saturday morning, according to fire officials.
When they returned that evening, they found a charred shell where their house once stood.
Officials say it’s still unclear how the fire started, but say it’s believed to be suspicious.
“When I arrived on scene I found evidence of [an] explosion,” Skye Lorimer with the Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office tells CTV News. “Some windows in the basement had been blown out.”
A few houses down, police carefully dusted a set of footprints running through a backyard toward the fire-ravaged home.
“There were footprints that led from the creek area that police were investigating, they were interested in,” says Lorimer.
Mary Aitkin says the trail ran through her property – which may have provoked her dog.
“At midnight I heard Penny, my dog, barking downstairs,” she says. “She only had about five barks or so and then she stopped.”
Aitkin says she ignored Penny’s barks, and went back to sleep.
“It’s kind of spooky,” she adds. “Especially since he came through our backyard.”
CTV News has also learned the owners, who have three young children, had been renovating their home for the last three years.
Now, one neighbour says it “looked like a bomb had dropped into the centre of the house.”
“I just felt sick,” says neighbour Pat Rowe. “I mean, they’ve lost everything. If you take a good look at the house, there will be no pictures, no family mementos. All their financial records, everything must be destroyed.”
Waterloo Regional Police and the Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office continue to investigate and have filed a warrant to scour what’s left of the family’s home.
