TORONTO — Durham Regional Police say a fire that gutted a downtown Oshawa funeral home before dawn Monday is suspicious, after firefighters declared the building a total loss.Oshawa Fire Services was called just before 4 a.m. after paramedics smelled smoke near King St. E., south of the courthouse. Platoon Chief Jim Lee said crews followed the smoke to the McIntosh-Anderson-Kellam Funeral Home and found the building already burning. “It is a total loss, so we’re just tearing it down to make the area safe,” Lee told Rogers Television as excavators pulled the structure apart and water hit remaining hotspots.There were no injuries, police spokeswoman Kristie Jones said. Officials have not said whether detection or suppression systems worked. Fire crews asked the public to stay off the block between King St. and Mary St. while the building came down. Residual smoke and flame were still visible during demolition.Durham police later classified the fire as suspicious. No charges have been laid. Investigators have not released a point of origin. The Office of the Fire Marshal typically attends commercial total-loss fires; that attendance had not been confirmed publicly by Monday evening.McIntosh-Anderson-Kellam posted that the property was being secured and that Mount Lawn staff were taking family calls.
