Police investigating arson as possible cause of Oshawa housefire that killed four

Durham Regional Police are looking into the possibility that arson caused was behind a housefire in Oshawa that took the lives of four people, including two children, early Monday morning, CP24 reports.

CTV reported on Monday that five victims of the fire were transported to hospital while four were unaccounted for. The bodies of the four have since been discovered, with all of them being pronounced dead.

The two children killed during the housefire were brothers who lived at the home, while the two adults were men unrelated to the family. The victims have not yet been publicly identified

"I did talk to our investigators this morning and they advised that out of the four deceased that were recovered, two of those were children. They are siblings and they're both part of the same family, and the two adult males that were also recovered, they are not part of the family but they were recovered in that residence as well," said Acting Sgt. George Tudos.

The fire began early in the morning on Monday and ultimately damaged seven housing units in a row of townhouses.

"There was information that the officers received at the time when we were doing, in the initial recovery stage, that it could have a potential to be an arson and then at that point our investigators then prompted an investigation to be commenced," Tudos explained.

"Now we will be looking for judicial authorization to enter that residence to collect more evidence to support our police investigation, but right now it's still early in the investigation, and our investigators will have to determine, based on any other evidence that we find now, whether it falls in the category of being criminal or not criminal," he continued.

According to Oshawa Fire Chief Derrick Clark, the search effort is a difficult one as "the floors have collapsed down on each other."