A fire at an abandoned and boarded up church on the grounds of the former London Psychiatric Hospital is believed to have been intentionally set.
Firefighters were called to the stone structure at 900 Highbury Ave. North just after 6:45 a.m. on Monday. When crews arrived they found heavy smoke coming from the roof and windows.
"All of the exits and windows have been boarded up to keep people out, so to gain access you have to use forcible entry to get in and then use forcible entry to open up the windows so the smoke and fire can be attacked through those openings," said Platoon Chief Kirk Loveland.
Also making the fire harder to extinguish was a lack of working hydrants in the area. Firefighters had to run their hoses across Highbury Avenue as there are no longer hydrants located in front of the structure, Loveland said. To do so, London police had to close all lanes of the busy east London street between Oxford and Dundas streets during the morning commute. It was reopened after the blaze was doused around 8:30 a.m.
No injuries were reported.
Fire investigators were expected to remain on scene for a large part of the day probing the cause of the fire.
"Because the building is vacant and has been boarded up it has been deemed suspicious," said Loveland. "Someone gained access to the building, it is an empty building with no utilities to it."
A damage estimate has not been released, but is expected to be low as the building was empty and slated to be torn down for a housing project by Old Oak Properties.
