Man critically hurt in apartment fire on Victoria Park Ave.
Posted October 28, 2011 5:27 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A man is fighting for his life in hospital after he was pulled from an apartment fire on Victoria Park Avenue and investigators are looking into the strange set of events before the flames erupted.
Toronto Fire crews were called to the scene at 1689 Victoria Park Ave., north of Eglinton, around 4:15 a.m. Friday. When firefighters arrived they found a man throwing things off of a second-floor balcony with the blaze burning inside the unit behind him.
The firefighters tried to erect a ladder to rescue the man from the balcony but he retreated back inside the burning apartment.
“I don’t know the reasons but what the crew has said is that he was on the balcony when they first got there and when they got the ladder up, for whatever reason, he re-entered the apartment,” Toronto Fire Division Commander Lorne Buckingham said.
The man, said to be about 60 years old, ended up suffering extensive burns—reportedly covering 20 per cent of his body. He was rushed to Sunnybrook hospital.
Witnesses said they saw a man yelling and throwing items off the balcony before the flames erupted.
“You could barely make out what he was saying but he was yelling, and I guess, arguing, throwing stuff out the window, the balcony,” Pete Nanan said.
A police officer and two residents suffered smoke inhalation trying to save the man. The police officer has since been released from hospital.
The entire building was evacuated and TTC buses were brought to the scene to provide temporary shelter for residents.The tenants were allowed back into the building around 9 a.m.
