Teen boy dead after being swept into storm drain in Earl Bales Park

A teenage boy is dead after he was swept into a storm drain tunnel in Earl Bales Park following heavy rain overnight.

Fire crews, police and paramedics were called to the scene near Sheppard Avenue West and Bathurst Street just before 1:30 a.m. on Friday for two teens who were swept into the storm sewer system.

“Our understanding was that they were in the storm drain system, they went approximately 300 metres through the system, down a chute and into the river where they were swept away,” Toronto Fire division commander Steve Darling said, referring to the incident as a “misadventure.”

“My understanding was that they did venture into the system and got caught with the water levels rising.”

One of the male teens, an 18-year-old, was able to cling to the side of a rock and pull himself out of the water. He walked to a parking lot where he alerted passersby who called 911. He was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Darling said the missing teen’s body was found half a kilometre down from the bottom of the storm drain tunnel.

Officials haven’t revealed the teen’s age or his cause of death.

Darling said the two teens were friends.

Firefighters, as well as Toronto police Emergency Task Force officers and police dogs, started their rescue efforts at the northeast corner of the park, near Don River Boulevard and under the Sheppard overpass, where they searched a floodway and a creek that both flow into a storm water management pond at the park. They continued their search to the Don Valley Golf Course and the ravine area of York Mills.

“The [storm system] does start up at the top of Earl Bales Park, there’s manhole covers that they would have [had to access]. The tunnel is about 300 metres long that they went through, there is a grate at the other end, which opens on hinges to a large chute that empties out into the river, right below the reservoir that’s attached to the Don Valley Golf Course,” Darling said.

Earlier in the day, Toronto Fire platoon chief John Carson said search crews were dealing with quick-moving water due to Thursday night’s downpour.

Several bright yellow signs are posted along the ravine warning of sudden flooding conditions and dangerous water.

Emergency crews at Earl Bales Park after a person is believed to have been swept into a storm drain in the area on Aug. 25, 2023. CITYNEWS/Bert Dandy

With files from CityNews reporter Kevin Misener