Police and fire officials are investigating a suspicious fire that destroyed an abandoned house in Burnaby Monday night.

Fire crews were called to the building, located in the 5300 block of Byrne Road, just after 9 p.m. By the time they arrived, however, the house was already fully engulfed, according to assistant fire Chief Greg Young.

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“The structure was falling apart when they got there, so they weren’t able to go inside,” he told the NOW. “They just basically extinguished it from the exterior.”

The building had been boarded up with plywood for years, according to Young, but he said it’s possible someone may have broken in and been living there.

So far, the fire department isn’t aware of anyone having been trapped inside during the blaze, he said.

“You can’t really go in and disturb the place until the investigation is done,” he said. “They’re looking at it right now.”