Comox Valley RCMP have deemed an early morning structure fire in a Courtenay neighbourhood as suspicious.

The fire broke out in the 1700-block of McPhee Avenue around 5 a.m. on Tuesday.

The blast was loud enough to wake up the neighbourhood.

“Initially, I thought there was something maybe hitting the side of the house … then I went to the back-end of the bedroom and looked out the window and the flames were gushing up,” Tom Morgan, who lives in the area, said.

The flames were confined to the carport and shed at the back of the property, but smoke could be seen billowing out.

“I heard a great big crash, and so I looked out the window,” said Bev Petersen, another neighbour. “I screamed and yelled at my husband to get up.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but circumstances were suspicious enough that fire crews called the RCMP Major Crimes Unit to the scene.

This isn’t the first time firefighters have been in the neighbourhood looking into a suspicious blaze.

Last September, a carport fire just three blocks away destroyed a home on Fitzgerald Avenue. Three months before that, a car caught fire nearby.

“At this time, investigators are looking at every aspect of this including any connection to any other fires in the area,” said Const. Monika Terragni with the Comox Valley RCMP.

Anyone with information on Tuesday’s fire is asked to please contact the investigators at 250-338-1321 and refer to file 2018-5602 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).