RCMP have been called in to investigate a suspicious house fire in St. Albert.
The fire broke out in a home located at 19 Oak Point, just after 3:00 Saturday morning.
"We had two units respond to find that the residence was fully charged with smoke and some flame," said Les David Mroz, a fire investigator with St. Albert Fire Services.
The St. Albert and Morinville Fire Departments worked together to battle the blaze, which was contained to the one home.
Damage to the outside of the home is minimal, however the inside of the home suffered extensive smoke damage.
"In conjunction with the fire damage and this size of house we're estimating approximately $250,000 in damage," said Mroz.
The family who lives in the home is on vacation, apart from an adult male between the age of 50 and 60, who officers believe is the homeowner. The man was outside the home when fire crews arrived on scene Saturday morning. He was taken to hospital by ambulance, where he was treated for smoke inhalation and released.
There were no other injuries reported, and nobody else was in the home at the time of the fire.
Shortly before 5:30am, St. Albert RCMP were called in to investigate, as the cause of the fire was not "immediately obvious" to the fire department, according to Corporal Laurel Kading with St. Albert RCMP.
"When the fire department does not see obvious reasons for the fire, they will deem it suspicious until such time as we prove differently or support the cause of suspicion," said Kading.
"In certain cases we work very closely with RCMP and this is one of those cases," added Mroz.
Crews anticipate they will be on scene well into Saturday afternoon, as they continue their investigation.
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