WARMINGTON: No reliable explanation for Brampton Diwali-night house fire

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This was a Brampton Diwali night light show that could be seen for miles around.

While residents were ready to enjoy this year’s Festival of Lights in Brampton, this Sunday light and smoke show has instead sparked anger, blame and debate.

While the notion that this major fire was a result of careless people shooting off consumer fireworks to celebrate the Hindu holiday might make for an intriguing storyline, like many stories, there are complications and nuance.

It may not be as simple as the fireworks theory. Sure, some were firing off fireworks nearby. However, this may have all come down to some kids and, as it turns out, equally-as-dangerous sparklers — something families often use for birthday parties or celebration days like Canada Day, Victoria Day or Diwali.

Here is what Brampton Fire put out to the media Monday morning.

“On Sunday, Nov. 8, at approximately 9:20 p.m., Brampton Fire and Emergency Services responded to reports of a residential structure fire at 81 Cedarbrook Rd. Upon arrival, crews encountered heavy fire conditions originating in the garage, which extended into the attached residence. Crews evacuated a neighbouring residence as a precaution.”

It added that “crews located discarded fireworks materials in the garage, which may have been a contributing factor to the fire. The cause of the fire has not yet been confirmed, and the investigation remains ongoing.”

Was a sparkler a smoking gun?

No one was hurt and the inferno was mostly contained to one unit. But it was that “discarded fireworks materials in the garage” comment from Brampton Fire that prompted media members — mainstream, bloggers and Indian-Canadian media — to head out to the scene.

Was this the smoking gun?

Not so fast, it turns out. Brampton Fire looked at it closer as they were trying to figure out just what caused this blaze. There were certainly some big clues left behind in front of the charred home. Some key eyewitnesses, too.

But what Brampton Fire originally called “discarded fireworks” now appears to have been sparklers. Fire investigators noted a large amount of metal, used sparklers inside and outside of the garage. Witnesses described seeing “unsupervised” children running around with the lit handheld sparkers inside and outside the garage, which on Monday was in a state of burned-out ruin.

“Lots of children were holding the sparklers,” neighbour Ewa Buzny said.

Heated debate

The fire was not the only thing burning there. Buzny said there were heated tempers and plenty of racially charged comments flying around among other homeowners and it came close to physical blows being thrown.

Eventually, witnesses said, people were separated and things calmed down, and the focus went back to the fire itself. Neighbour Mark Andrew said what he saw was one of the children “jumping around” and panicking while dropping a sparkler, then, suddenly, the whole house went up in flames.

The place was fully engulfed and you could see it from a distance away.

“The father tried to put it out with a garden house, but it was too late,” said Andrew, adding that he told neighbours to move their cars.

Brampton Fire has not confirmed that a child throwing a sparker was the cause. There seemed to be dozens of spent sparklers wires amongst the rubble.

Turns out, there is no Brampton bylaw preventing sparkler use

Meanwhile, neighbour Gurpardeep Singh said he called 911 as his friend got his family out of the home.

It was an apocalyptic-looking scene. After the fire was doused, you could see the damage caused to the bikes and other items in the garage — all burned beyond recognition. Brampton Fire saved the day here because this one house fire could easily have turned into 10 had they did not got to this one fast.

The question now is what caused this, and how can another fire like this be prevented in the future? At the end of the day, whether it was a sparkler or firework cannister used in the Diwali celebration, the end result was the same.

Brampton Fire Deputy Chief Andrew vonHolt said his team is investigating. While there were many spent fireworks cartridges found on the street, it turns out there was nothing like that found in the garage. What was found was dozens of metal, wire rods for sparklers and their packaging.

Why is that important?

Not only is it key in that it may turned out to have been what sparked the fire, but there is another reason.

“Sparklers don’t fall under the no-fireworks bylaw,” vonHolt said.

This means it is possible there was no broken bylaws that may have played a role in causing this fire.

Oops.

Now, in this townhouse complex, there is a sign displayed in the middle playground area that makes it very clear there is “no fireworks” permitted there. There are illustrations, too.

But it does not say or show anything about potentially just-as-lethal sparklers. Mayor Patrick Brown and his council just may have to fix that for next year.

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