One man is dead and another critically hurt after a fire tore through a 15-unit rooming house in south Etobicoke early Sunday morning.
Firefighters were called out to the three-storey building just after 5 a.m. as flames shot through a building on 22nd Street, just north of Lake Shore Boulevard.
A 61-year-old man without vital signs was pulled out of the blaze and was revive by firefighters at the scene. That victim was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital by emergency run and is in critical condition.
Firefighters found a second victim, a deceased man in his forties, in a rear unit as they conducted a secondary search of the structure at about 8:30 a.m.
Ward 6 Coun. Mark Grimes was visibly upset as he visited the scene with staff from the city's victim services department to help arrange short-term housing for the displaced.
The fire is not being considered a crime at this point. Damage to the structure is estimated at about $500,000, according to officers at Toronto Police's 22 Division.
Toronto Fire Chief Bill Stewart says only one working smoke alarm was found, located at the rear of the building near the deceased man's unit.
Mike Ross of the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal arrived at the scene in the late morning. He is expected to continue his investigation into how the fire began until sometime Sunday evening.
The fire marshal's office investigates about 600 residential fires annually. About 40 per cent of the homes are found to have no working smoke alarms. Residential fires account for 80 per cent of fire fatalities in Ontario annually.
