Woman dead, man critical after west-end house fire

Article content

A woman is dead and others, including a man in critical condition, were being treated for fire-related injuries after a suspicious early morning fire in the city’s west end.

Toronto Fire crews responded to a home at 140 Rusholme Rd., west of Dovercourt Rd. and College St., just after midnight for a fire in a basement apartment.

Paul Rainsforth, who lives across the street from the home, said he was awoken by bright lights and police activity in the alleyway behind his place.

“I could smell something coming through my windows, like a weird smell, and I could see flashing lights and thought police had arrested someone in the alleyway,” said Rainsforth.

“And being a nosy neighbour, I came out and there were fire trucks everywhere and heavy smoke.”

Rainsforth said paramedics then brought a person across the street and onto a stretcher.

“The medics wheeled somebody up onto the sidewalk,” said Rainsforth. “They were then compressing the person’s heart.”

“Obviously something pretty serious was happening.”

Ruby Bay, a jazz singer and student who lives a few doors away, said the house has several apartments in it and musicians who live there.

Bay said she smelt something weird burning around 10:30 p.m. and tried to go to sleep.

“That’s when I heard the screaming and decided to come out. There was screaming and running,” said Bay. “And I thought it was the girl downstairs, she is usually very loud.”

Toronto’s homicide unit was notified and around 2 p.m. two investigators with the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal showed up to begin their investigation with Toronto Fire officials.

Clive Hubbard said they will have to wait until they receive search warrants to get into the house to determine the origin of the fire.

“My job here is to conduct an origin, cause and circumstance investigation into the nature of this fire,” said Hubbard.

“Figure out how it started, what was the ignition source and what was the first fuel ignited.”

Hubbard said he and fellow investigator were called in as there was a “fatality involved and a second person was significantly injured.”

A uniformed police officer came out of the house with several brown paper evidence bags and started to place items in them recovered from inside the home, including what looked to looked to be a blue hoody, before sealing it up.

Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg expressed his condolences on X.

“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,” he said in the post.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video