Just after 11:45 p.m., Toronto Police and fire were called to a burning tow truck in a parking lot on Victoria Park Ave. near Parma Ct. While en route, emergency crews encountered a second tow truck on fire parked behind a strip mall on Sunrise Ave. and Victoria Park, one block north of the first fire.
Police have yet to confirm if the fires are related, or identify suspects. These two fires are the latest in a series of incidents linked to a violent turf war battling for control of Toronto’s lucrative collision tow business. Tuesday’s fires come nearly a month after gunmen opened fire on tow trucks parked along the 401 at Avenue Rd. and Leslie St. — just days after a tow truck was torched in a driveway in Whitchurch-Stouffville. Earlier in January, another tow truck was set on fire in a driveway in Ajax.
RELATED Toronto-area tow company owner hit with charges in OPP corruption investigation Lorraine Complains: As tow truck operators go to war, who can you trust? Last week, a Toronto cop was charged for a third time as part of an anti-corruption investigation alleging his involvement in a tow truck ‘consortium’ that used inside information and stolen police radios to get a leg up on competitors seeking to be first on the scene of collisions.
Criminality in the GTA towing industry was the subject of the York Regional Police-led Project Platinum, a far-reaching probe into allegations of fraud, arson, shootings and murders connected to a bloody turf war between rival factions.