Early morning blaze causes massive damage in Burlington subdivision

Deepti Malhotra fled her home at approximately 4:10 this morning after seeing her neighbour's house on Lodi Road on fire. 

Malhotra and her family are unharmed, but she says some of the windows on the back of her house were shattered. 

“Luckily my curtains were open, and I saw the big flame,” Malhotra said Monday afternoon. “I knew this was going to affect me; it was going to come to my house. If I stayed where I was, the window would’ve shattered into my face.”

The Burlington Fire Department says four homes on the street near Walker's Line and Dundas Street were on fire, one of which was occupied. Burlington Transit buses also came through to provide shelter for evacuated residents, platoon chief Dan Vanderlelie said. 

Malhotra added that the occupied house was only moments away from disaster when the family got out. 

“Those people got out with 30 seconds difference,” she said. “I heard they stepped out, and the roof came down. They have young kids too, I feel so bad for them.”

Malhotra told BurlingtonToday that on Saturday she saw a small fire through the windows in one of the houses that has since burned down. She called the fire department, who put it out and just told her it was small fire and everyone was safe. 

Two days later, the house where she saw the original, small fire, is gone. 

“Knowing this happened, there should have been tightened security in the area, which didn’t happen in a day,” Malhotra said. 

As of 1 p.m., firefighters were still on the scene spraying the homes with water. 

The Ontario Fire Marshal is investigating the incident, said the Burlington Fire Dept.

Today's fire is the second major incident in the north Burlington neighbourhood in recent months. In August, several units under construction on Koenig Road were destroyed by fire. In June, six townhouses in Millcroft were also burned.