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A man is dead after a house fire in Etobicoke early Saturday morning, according to Toronto police.
Emergency crews responded shortly after midnight to reports of a house fire near The Queensway and Royal York Road, Toronto Fire told CBC News.
Crews arrived on scene to find a blaze in the garage and basement of a home, said Toronto Fire Chief Jim Jessop at a news conference at the scene.
“Imagine literally going down into a chimney last night and that’s what the firefighters did,” he said. “The conditions that they forced their way into last night were heavy, heavy black smoke and really, really high heat.”
“Firefighters at that time of night are trained to assume there may be people in the home and immediately commenced a search,” he said. Jessop said they located a person inside the basement and despite being quickly removed, that person was pronounced dead at the scene.
Toronto police said the person in the basement was an adult man. Jessop said no other information was available on the victim as police continue to notify his next of kin.
“These scenes are never easy to deal with and certainly there are individuals today that have lost a loved one,” he said, adding crews were able to suppress and extinguish the fire.
The Office of the Fire Marshal has been called in as Toronto Fire investigators begin to look into the cause and circumstances of the fire, said Chief Jim Jessop (Adrian Merritt Smith/CBC)
Despite facing “challenging” conditions in the home, Jessop thanked emergency crews for their professionalism and efforts.
Toronto Fire investigators are at the scene looking into the origin, cause and circumstances of the fire. Jessop said the Office of the Fire Marshal has been notified, as is protocol when there is a fire-related fatality.
Jessop did not have any information on whether there were other residents in the house or where the fire started, instead he said those details would be determined in the investigation.
Toronto paramedics said they assessed three patients and did not transport anyone to hospital. They did not provide any further details on injuries or who the patients were.
Jessop said there is nothing to indicate the fire was caused by lithium ion batteries, but noted it is too early in the investigation to say for certain.
Man found dead will be ‘really missed’: neighbour
The man who died in the fire lived in the basement unit of the house and was in his 60s, according to Jesse Young, a resident in the area.
Tears welled in her eyes as she spoke about the sudden loss of the man, who had been her friend for over a decade. She described him as “really funny” and that he was always willing to help or hang out.
“It’s just gonna be weird not having him here … He’s gonna be really missed,” Young said. “He was just always there. He was like a neighbour you could call and count on for stuff.”
She said neighbours gathered outside the house early Saturday morning after being woken up by emergency crews.
The woman who lived upstairs in the house was able to evacuate with her grandson and later told nearby friends that the man had died, said Young.