The low-rent spaces are typically used to store furniture, vehicles, forgotten mementoes, countless collectibles and lots of junk. But London police say a west-end storage unit in a residential ­neighbourhood was converted into a drug lab.

The discovery resulted in a scene Wednesday that, borrowing from two hit television series, could be described as Breaking Bad meets Storage Wars.

Investigators wearing hazardous materials suits and breathing apparatus gathered evidence in the sprawling complex of single-storey storage buildings.

Police remained tight-lipped, saying only that officers from the guns and drugs squad, along with the RCMP, are probing a “possible inactive, clandestine lab.”

“I can tell you it’s an active investigation,” said spokesperson Const. Sandasha Bough.

Bough wouldn’t disclose what was manufactured inside a unit at StorageMart at 328 Commissioners Rd. W. She also didn’t say how police were alerted to the suspected drug lab, citing the ongoing investigation. One witness said he first noticed a police presence at the business Monday evening.

Two StorageMart employees said they couldn’t comment on the investigation.

A cluster of emergency responders stood behind a taped-off ­section near the back of the storage yard. Police officers loaded boxes into a truck while firefighters and paramedics stood nearby.

Nobody was hurt, but paramedics were on scene as a safety precaution, said a duty manager for Middlesex-London EMS.

Though a drug lab in a storage unit may be a first for London, criminals in other Canadian cities have been making and stashing drugs inside the low-cost spaces for years.

The units offer 24-hour access to cheap spaces — many even heated and air conditioned — free from the potentially prying eyes of nosy neighbours.

Units at the Commissioners Road StorageMart range in price from $82 to $340 a month, according to the company’s website.

Police were expected to release more information on the case Thursday.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com

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