MONTREAL – Add another professional-appearing overnight torch job to the recently burgeoning list of arson cases being probed in the city’s north end.

A fire that broke out in a minivan parked less than a metre from a two-storey commercial building in Saint-Léonard – and that spread with remarkable rapidity – was clearly planned, Constable Anthony Cantelmi of Montreal police said Thursday morning.

"The speed at which the fire spread indicated that it was set intentionally,” he added.

Arson investigators were called at 11:40 p.m. Wednesday by firefighters trying to extinguish the blaze, on Creusot St. near Magloire St.

The commercial building, which housed an auto-body shop and a second business, was extensively damaged.

Two other vehicles were also destroyed.

No estimate of monetary damage was immediately available.

No injuries were reported.

The crime scene is located several blocks north of the Metropolitan Expressway, just east of Langelier Blvd.

Cantelmi wouldn’t speculate whether the latest incident and a spate of similar ones is linked to organized crime, adding that this will be up to investigators to determine.

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