A woman has been pronounced dead and four others have been taken to hospital following a basement fire that broke out at a home in the Dufferin Grove area overnight and is now being investigated as suspicious.
Emergency crews responded to a fire at a two-storey home at 140 Rusholme Road, near College Street and Dovercourt Road, shortly after midnight.
Firefighters arrived to find smoke coming from the home and several people inside.
“During the course of search and rescue operations, two occupants were located inside the home, immediately rescued and transferred to @TorontoMedics,” Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg wrote in a post on social media.
“Sadly, one patient has been pronounced deceased and the second has been transported to hospital in critical condition. I extend our deepest condolences to family, friends and all those impacted by this tragic incident.”
Toronto Paramedic Services said there were five adult patients pulled from the home. One person was pronounced dead at the scene, while a man was rushed to hospital in critical condition. Three others were taken to hospital with minor injuries.
Toronto police said the victim who died was a woman, but no other details have been released about her identity.
Imran Sheik, a security guard who was on duty at a neighbouring building when the fire broke out, told CP24 he saw black smoke billowing out from the lower levels of the home, but didn’t hear any sort of alarm sounding before firefighters arrived.
“There was no alarm sound, nothing like that was happening,” Sheik said.
He said he saw firefighters carry a man and woman out of the home.
Homicide Unit monitoring investigation
CP24 has learned the deadly fire is being investigated as suspicious. Toronto police said the homicide unit has been made aware of the investigation and are monitoring the outcome of the autopsy and the Ontario Fire Marshal’s investigation.
Pegg said the fire has been extinguished and that fire investigators will now be working with Toronto police and the OFM to determine what caused the fire and the circumstances around it.
Sarah Martin, a neighbour who, lives nearby, said she was asleep when she woke up to the sound of someone screaming.
“I thought someone was in distress. So I came out here and when I came out, there were actually two young women who were trying to call the police or call 911, and they said somebody is locked in somewhere or something, and there’s a fire,” Martin said. “And then I could see smoke and then quickly, it must have been like 10 fire trucks, like the whole road was shut down.”
She said she understands that the people pulled from the fire were roommates.
“There was a lot of smoke. I thought it was the apartment building, actually, because there was so much smoke.
There was no visible fire damage to the home from the outside of the building Wednesday morning.
A TTC vehicle was called to the scene to shelter other residents of the house displaced by the fire.
Firefighters remain on scene this morning to monitor the situation.
-With files from CP24 Reporter Beatrice Vaisman