A massive fire that engulfed more than 10 vehicles outside Woodbine Racetrack overnight is being investigated as an act of arson, police say.
Emergency crews were first called to the west parking lot at the racetrack near Rexdale Boulevard and Highway 427 at around midnight for reports of a single vehicle fire; however police say that by the time they arrived on scene the blaze had spread to numerous other vehicles.
Video footage that was shot by a tow truck driver and provided to CP24 shows a massive inferno engulfing a row of vehicles with heavy black smoke billowing from the fire. Several car alarms can also be heard going off in the distance.
“When our officers showed up they found quite a number of cars that had been set on fire. I believe the number is more than 10. This obviously was suspicious to the officers, who then began an investigation,” Const. David Hopkinson told CTV News Toronto on Friday morning. “Woodbine Racetrack has fairly good (surveillance) video, we gathered some evidence and we are reviewing the evidence now but the fire is being treated as suspicious – either arson or some sort of mischief.”
Hopkinson said that the cars that were parked outside Woodbine Racetrack early Friday morning likely belonged to people attending the gaming complex, which was open at the time.
He said that the area would have had some foot traffic at the time, so there is hope that witnesses may come forward.
“What we are hoping for is that people that may have been at the racetrack, maybe in the parking lot just before this event, would have seen something suspicious,” he said. “We would like them to contact investigators and if they don’t want to contact investigators they can use Crime Stoppers to leave anonymous information.”
No information has been released about potential suspects at this point.
