Arsonist torches house, cars on midtown street

[attach]7776[/attach]A series of early morning arsons in Bennington Heights on Friday have left about a dozen people without cars, and one family without a home.

Doug and Aurelie Bryce and their three children were asleep in their Burnham Road home when they were awakened at about 3 a.m. by the central vacuum system suddenly switching on.

Doug Bryce said he quickly discovered the garage was on fire. Rousing the children, the parents quickly got everyone outside before flames reached the second floor. The fire got to the bedroom where son Sebastien, 5, had been sleeping.

They managed to get out of the house safely, but the incident has left them shaken.

“He just set my house on fire with my kids in it,” a shaken and crying Aurelie Bryce said about the still-at-large arsonist while surveying the house mid-morning. “I don’t know what comes next … I can’t tell my kids some crazy man set their house on fire.”

Police say the arsonist, whom they have yet to identify, went through the neighbourhood checking for unlocked cars, and then setting them on fire.

By late morning police were still receiving calls from residents finding their cars torched. At least 12 had been reported by noon.

Det.-Sgt. Dan Sabadics told reporters in a news conference at 53 Division the arsonist entered unlocked cars and lit paper or clothes on fire, without using an accelerant. Damage was estimated to be in the six-figure range.

Officers at the scene said they were provided with “good quality footage” of a potential suspect from surveillance camera at the Hasty Market at Bayview Avenue and Moore Avenue at about the time the arsons started.

While police are still looking for the suspect, neighbours and those affected are looking for answers.

“The neighbours were all out on the street and it wasn’t difficult to see what had gone on,” local councillor John Parker, who headed straight to the scene after hearing about it on the radio on his way to City Hall, said while surveying the damage. “It seems to have been a completely irrational and random act.”