A bright burst of flames lights up the inside of a darkened home. Seconds later a person dressed in dark clothing and bright white sneakers bolts out the front door.
They’re carrying what looks like a blue shopping bag as they sprint away from the burning home and dash down the street under cover of darkness.
All of this was captured by a video camera set up in a new Brampton subdivision where the home that went up in flames was among many still under construction.
Peel Regional Police said the video shows just one of several arsons committed between 1:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. at home building sites in the Valleyway Drive and Chinguacousy Road area, during a three-week span in July 2023.
That same year, there were dozens of what police deemed suspicious fires across central and southern Ontario.
All of them at homes under construction that were torched in the middle of the night.
Blazes burned at housing construction sites from Bradford to Burlington and from Vaughan to The Blue Mountains, leaving a trail of destruction and many unanswered questions.
In some cases, these fires destroyed three or four homes. But, in one instance, an inferno in Vaughan last November ravaged at least 30 townhouses and a fire truck.
It’s happening outside the GTA, too.
Over the course of two nights in late November, several townhouses under construction in an enclave of million-dollar homes in the Town of The Blue Mountains went up in flames.
Many of these fires remain under investigation, either by police or the Ontario Fire Marshal.
Data is hard to come by
With the province facing a housing crisis, these blazes have garnered plenty of media attention.
Still, determining how many suspicious fires have erupted at homes under construction in Ontario the last couple of years is tough to nail down.
A spokesperson for the Ontario Fire Marshal (OFM) said data from fire departments typically takes many months to assess, so he couldn’t provide a definitive answer.
OFM spokesperson Sean Driscoll said the agency is currently investigating three fires in residential developments.
Based on OFM statistics, the number of fires in construction projects during the last decade have remained fairly consistent, representing about one per cent of the total fires reported to OFM, according to Driscoll.
In 2020, there were 81 fires in residential buildings under construction in Ontario, 77 in 2021 and 70 in 2022.
Numbers for 2023 aren’t yet available because of the way fire departments provide statistics to OFM, Driscoll said, adding OFM’s verification process of a fire takes several months.
Driscoll also noted that, because of the way they are recorded, one ‘incident’ could involve multiple homes, making it difficult to determine how many were affected.
He also noted not all fires are investigated by OFM.
For instance, if security footage captures the origin of a fire and its cause, an OFM investigation isn’t likely required.
Even if there is an investigation, it may not yield any answers.
“Anecdotally, some fires result in a total loss of property and can be so devastating that the prospect of establishing the cause, origin, and circumstance of how a fire began is simply impossible,” Driscoll said.
Given the lack of data, it’s difficult to say with absolute certainty if there has been a significant rise in suspicious fires or if it just seems that way because there's so much construction activity underway and people are tuned in every time a house burns down.
But a spokesperson for Northbridge Insurance, a Toronto-based company that provides coverage to home builders, says they’ve seen a dramatic rise in the number of claims.
“We’ve seen 10 times more suspicious fires in the residential homebuilding space than we’ve seen in the last five years combined,” the spokesperson said.
That’s backed up by another source familiar with fire investigations, who isn’t authorized to speak on the record.
The source said there’s been a noticeable uptick in the number of suspicious fires at residential construction sites in the last year-and-a-half.
“Over the last 18 months, there has absolutely been a change,” the source said.
While determining the origin and cause of a fire can be easy, the source said, identifying a culprit, let alone a motive, is far more difficult.
No easy answers
While many online commenters have speculated it may have to do with shady operators, organized crime groups or soaring interest rates leading desperate home buyers to take drastic action, there’s no concrete evidence to back up those assertions.
So far, the truth remains an alarming mystery — one that might never be solved.
For reasons that aren't clear, arson at home building sites is one of those topics seemingly no one closely connected to the industry — from home builders and the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON) to the Ontario Homebuilders' Association and insurance providers — wants to discuss. At least, not openly and on the record.
“We cannot comment on ongoing investigations and the causes of these fires, but we have been working proactively with our broker partners and construction customers to educate them on various risk management techniques they can utilize to help keep their job sites and surrounding communities safer,” the Northbridge spokesperson said.
Nonetheless, in an alert sent to its clients in December, Northbridge Insurance noted a “quick and noticeable increase in suspicious fires affecting home builders, which may be being exacerbated by current financial and property market conditions.”
The alert listed a number of preventive measures builders can take, including enhancing security, conducting end-of-day inspections and engaging “with purchasers four-to-six months prior to closing to “see if there is any risk of the inability to obtain financing and close on their unit(s).”
The company also recommended builders conduct a home appraisal to determine if the appraised value of the unit is less than the original purchase price.”
That’s as close as anyone we've spoken with has come to trying to pinpoint a reason.
But unless police catch those responsible for setting the fires and they wind up in court, it’s unlikely we'll ever know what drove them to do it.
A person familiar with these types of investigations, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that rarely happens.
“It’s a tough threshold for police to find that burden of proof,” the source said.
The two fires in The Blue Mountains are still being actively investigated, and Collingwood OPP spokesperson Const. Trevor McKean said he couldn’t provide much detail.
But, he acknowledged, investigators were able to gather evidence at the scene of the second fire which is currently being analyzed at the Centre of Forensic Sciences.
“We have one or two detectives working on this, and we do have some working theories (as to what happened),” he said.
McKean said there didn't appear to be any connection to other similar fires across Ontario, other than circumstances of it being homes under construction.
What happens when a new house burns down?
A fire in a residential construction site falls outside of the role of Tarion and the new home warranty program, said Andrew Donnachie, manager of media and stakeholder relations.
But, he said, Tarion does monitor situations such as fires involving builders and homes enrolled in the warranty program
Donnachie said there could be a variety of impacts to the purchaser as a result of a blaze, including a delay in delivery of the home.
“We find stories like this very disconcerting, and we understand how devastating news like this could be to someone looking forward to moving into their new home,” he said.
Tarion’s warranty does cover potential issues a new home purchaser might face prior to taking possession, including delayed closing compensation and deposit protection should one or both of the parties decide to terminate the purchase agreement as outlined in their contract.
“We would always encourage purchasers and builders to communicate and work together to find a solution that works for both parties,” he said.