A search warrant has been executed at a house in Hope where an 18-month old child was found dead following a fire that broke out just after midnight Thursday.
An RCMP spokesperson said a search warrant is sought "in any investigation where there is a suspicion that a criminal code offence may have occurred."
"Our investigation is clearly focussed on the cause of the fire and the cause of death of the child," RCMP Cpl. Tammy Hollingsworth said in a Friday news release.
Hollingsworth told the Hope Standard on Thursday that two people were at home in the downstairs apartments of the two-storey house at 19988 Beacon Road at the time of the 1:30 a.m. fire. Both got out of the burning home safely.
However, Hollingsworth would not comment on how many people were in the upstairs apartment, or where the child's parents were at the time of the fire.
"That remains under investigation," she said.
The dead child was found in the upstairs apartment by firefighters who were able to enter only after the fire had been brought under control.
An earlier report to fire dispatchers that a second child had been in the home was a "miscommunication," Hollingsworth said.
A preliminary police examination of the home was conducted Thursday, and continued on Friday.
"The results of the completed scene examination will determine the next course of our investigation," Hollingsworth said in the Friday news release.
"This is all the information the (Upper Fraser Valley Regional Detachment) RCMP is releasing at this time," she said.