A candle in the basement of a Bloor West Village home is the suspected cause of an early morning fire Thursday that resulted in no human casualties but did claim the lives of several pets. A 42-year-old woman escaped the blaze at a house on St. Helens Avenue southwest of Bloor Street and Lansdowne Avenue at about 12:45 a.m., police said.
Her 33-year-old brother was rescued from the roof by firefighters. Her 65-year-old mother was removed from the house and taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
A cat, a guinea pig and two snapping turtles were rescued from the home and were picked up by Toronto Animal Services.
However, two cats and a bird are among the animals that died in the fire.
Smoke detectors in the home were not working, police said.
Curt Isakson is a 35 year veteran of the fire service. Curt is currently a Battalion Chief for Escambia County Fire Rescue. Previously worked 9 years with the Pensacola Fire Department where he was assigned as the Company Officer on Rescue 31. Curt’s fire service experiences started at a young age as a Junior firefighter with the Midway Fire Protection District and rose through the ranks to Captain. He has worked in volunteer, career, and combination departments.
Curt has held all ranks up to Battalion Chief and been assigned to operations, training, inspections, and was Chief of Special Operations for 7 years. Curt owns and operates County Fire Tactics that covers a very diverse range of fire service topics, as well as Firefighter Rescues, a site that documents rescues made by firefighters around the country.
He has annual contracts with numerous departments to provide standardized monthly training for these departments that respond daily together under an automatic aid agreement. Curt teaches nationally to include; FDIC, Firehouse Expo, Firehouse World, Orlando Fire Conference, Atlanta Fire Conference, Bowling Green State University, and owns/operates the annual HROC, COBC, WOTF, CFT ODP on Pensacola Beach. He is a Florida Certified Fire Officer, Instructor, Inspector, Arson, and FLUSAR.
