Nearly three dozen firefighters were needed to battle a stubborn blaze at a boarded-up home in the east end of London, Ont., on Monday.
Emergency crews were called to the building at 254 Hamilton Rd., near Little Grey Street, just after 11:30 a.m.
“It was a three-storey, boarded-up vacant building, but there were reports that were possibly people inside,” London fire department platoon chief Dave Hood told Global News.
Police were in contact with one person who said he was inside the structure, Hood said. “He was not injured.”
Hood said crews searched the home but no one else was found.
“At that point, it was determined that, due to the age of the structure and the condition of it, we should fight it as a defensive fire, which means that we pull our crews out and fight it from the outside just to prevent any kind of injuries.”
He said 34 fire department members were needed to douse the flames.
The cause of the fire is under investigation and a damage estimate hasn’t been released yet.
— with files from Global News’ Natalie Lovie.
© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
