After a fire ripped through a home in Brampton early Monday morning, two parents and their three small children were killed, and another person was hospitalized.
Emergency services were summoned to a home on Conestoga Drive, near Sutter Avenue, between the Kennedy Road and Sandalwood Parkway East area at 1:57 a.m. for complaints of a fire, according to Peel Regional Police.
The fire soon reached three alarms, according to Brampton Fire Chief Bill Boyes, and crews arrived to thick smoke and strong flames.
They launched a “aggressive interior attack,” but were repelled at first, and only entered the house when it was safe.
They managed to pull four people from the house but all were later pronounced dead. A fifth victim was located deceased inside the home during a search.
Boyes said they believe the two deceased adults were the parents of the three children ages 6, 8 and 11 who also died.
“They’re upset, they wanted to do everything they could, they risked their lives to go into this fire and get these people out, unfortunately it was a terrible outcome,” Boyes said of the firefighters who performed rescues at the scene. “They’re heartbroken.”
They found a sixth adult victim outside the home who got out on their own and they were rushed to Sunnybrook Hospital for treatment of critical injuries.
Two other people who lived in a basement apartment in the home made their way out uninjured.
Firefighters continued to perform interior searches hours after they first arrived at the scene.
The fire in the home was not suppressed for several hours and the Fire Marshal was called in to investigate what caused the blaze.
Police closed Conestoga Drive between Sandalwood Parkway East and Cranmore Court to allow room for fire crews to deal with the blaze.
Boyes said they will look into the state of the home’s fire and smoke detectors as part of the investigation.
The City of Brampton said it would lower flags at all municipal facilities to half mast today to mourn the loss.
Source_ globalnews.ca
