A shelter built by a homeless individual hidden behind a vacant heritage house on Leslie Street in Newmarket was destroyed by fire last weekend.
Central York Fire Services confirmed crews responded to a vacant property near Leslie Street and Mulock Drive, by the Reflections on Bogart Pond Condos, on the evening of Dec. 28, with members of the public reporting fire and sirens late that night. Subsequently, a person who had been living on the property in a structure they had built confirmed it had burned down.
“The fire was quickly extinguished with no further spread,” assistant Central York Fire Services Deputy Chief Claude Duval said.
An individual had built a small encampment with a wooden structure in a treed area on the property, behind the historic Bogart House on Leslie. The structure was separate from the historic home and was largely enclosed. The individual had been living there for some time, nearby residents report.
But the structure was left as burned rubble after the Dec. 28 blaze. Central York Fire Services did not confirm the cause of the fire.
