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An Edmonton man whose grandparents died in a fire at an apartment building on the city\u2019s north side earlier this week said he wants them to be remembered for who they were and not for what happened to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn’t deserve that at all,\u201d Lali Toor told CBC News on Wednesday as he spoke about his late grandfather, 85-year-old Major Singh Bhandal, and his late grandmother, 82-year-old Surinderjit Kaur Bhandal. \u201cThey’re very good people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, police confirmed an 85-year-old man died after jumping from a third-floor balcony in an attempt to escape the flames.\u00a0 On Wednesday, they confirmed the man\u2019s wife also died in the fire.<\/p>\n
The fire broke out at about 9:15 p.m. on Monday after a vehicle crashed into an apartment building in the area of 82nd Street and 131st Avenue, and ruptured a gas line. Police said that resulted in an explosion and fire at the building. The building has businesses on the main floor and two floors of apartment units above that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started seeing the media of the elderly man jumping, that wasn’t just an elderly man \u2014 that was my grandfather,\u201d Toor said. \u201cThat was Major Singh.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Toor said his grandfather was a big figure in his life and that much of his personality was shaped by him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Major Singh Bhandal had worked as a farmer in his home village in India, and Toor described him as a giving person and an active member of the Sikh community in Edmonton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Toor described his grandmother as an educated woman born in Mumbai who would always speak with him about politics<\/p>\n
He said his grandparents were deeply in love, even after being married for over 60 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandfather would still drive his car at the age of 85 [and] would take my grandmother anywhere she needs to go,\u201d said Toor. \u201cYou would never see one without the other. They were best friends. \u2026 Their love was incredible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s what we should remember them as, as a couple that stood the test of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toor said the couple moved to Canada from India 30 years ago and had lived in their north Edmonton apartment the entire time.<\/p>\n
\u2018I was in panic mode\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Toor said he was having dinner with his in-laws on Monday when he heard about the fire. He said he recognized the scene from a photo his wife had sent him of the fire as his grandparents’ neighbourhood and decided to drive there to see what was going on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWords can’t describe what I saw, just the amount of flames, the chaos. I was in panic mode,\u201d said Toor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When he arrived at the scene, Toor said he saw his grandfather surrounded by first responders attempting to perform CPR on him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, I didn\u2019t comprehend what was going on \u2014 if it was him or not \u2014 because I was just panicking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toor said his grandfather died at the scene and that he was told his grandmother\u2019s body was found in her apartment the next day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just been so devastating for our family,\u201d said Toor. \u201cWe spent the rest of the night trying to figure out what was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toor said the loss has been especially felt by his mother, who he said was very close with her parents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the community has come together to mourn the death of his grandparents and to support the family. <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784183272_357_default.jpg\")
A memorial was set up for Surinderjit Kaur Bhandal and Major Singh Bhandal by their grandson Lali Toor and his wife at the scene of a deadly fire in north Edmonton in July 2026. Toor described his grandparents as a loving couple who will be deeply missed by their family and community. (Submitted by Lali Toor)<\/p>\n
The family has set up a makeshift memorial at the scene of the fire as a place where people can go and pay their respects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to make sure they\u2019re mourned and remembered in a certain way, not just as these people we don\u2019t know, without names,\u201d Toor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Police said Wednesday that a resident of the apartment building that had been unaccounted for has been located and is safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Six people were sent to hospital as a result of the fire. Police said the 62-year-old man who was driving the vehicle that hit the building was taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n
Police said they continue to work with Edmonton Fire Rescue Services to investigate the events that led to the fire. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-805068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}