OFM investigating suspicious fire at Hamilton business

A suspicious fire at a clothing store in downtown Hamilton is currently under investigation.

19-year old Zahra Jawad and her sister got a frightening call just before midnight last night, their store, The Queen Fashion on King street west was on fire.

“So bad, there was a lot of damage in the store and all the floor was burned and most of the clothes were burned down and some stuff were broken.”

Zahra and her family immigrated to Canada from Pakistan four years ago. Back in September she dropped out of high school to open up her shop that sells imported clothing from Turkey.

Hamilton police and the Ontario Fire Marshall say they’re investigating the fire as an arson. While detectives haven’t labelled it as such, Zahra has a feeling that the fire could be a hate crime.

There were no cameras outside the business but Zahra says police told her that the arsonist simply walked through the front door despite her sister insisting that she locked it before she left.

Police say there’s about $20 000 in damages and are asking the public for any insight on who could have started the fire and how.