'Heavy fire' that damaged historic inn in Wolfville deemed suspicious

A fire that damaged a historic inn in Wolfville, N.S., early Friday has been deemed suspicious.

Fire crews were called to Victoria's Historic Inn onMain Street at 5:25 a.m.

Todd Crowell, chief of the WolfvilleVolunteer Fire Department,said crews were paged for a commercial structure fire.

"Upon the first officers' arrival there was a heavy fire on the exterior of the building extension to the interior of the structure," he said in an email.

The email said two occupants got out safely.

He said the department isworking with the Office of the Fire Marshal and RCMP to determine the cause of the fire.

RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Chris Marshall said the fire has been deemed suspicious.

He said the property was evacuated and no one was injured in the blaze.

The part of the inn that caught fire was separated slightly from the main building. The portion that burned was very extensively damaged, Marshall said, and is likely a complete loss.

Larry LeCouter of the Hantsport Fire Department said his crew was paged to respond at 5:33 a.m. and assisted the Wolfville crew, along with crews from other nearby departments.

LeCouter said the inn is "one of the real big nice places" in the town.

By 7:45 a.m., crews had begun to pack up and get ready to leave the scene.