2 Dead and 10 People Rescued from Fire in Toronto

Two men are dead after a fire broke out at a rooming house in Kensington Market early Thursday morning, Toronto police say.

Twelve people, including children, were rescued from the three-storey building when emergency personnel arrived at the chaotic scene on St. Andrew Street, west of Spadina Avenue, at about 2 a.m.

Some of the occupants were trapped on the upper floors and they had to be rescued with a ladder.

Police officers rescued a woman and a child before fire crews arrived, a fire official told CP24.

Toronto EMS spokeswoman Kim McKinnon said paramedics transported 12 people to different hospitals.

The two men were pronounced dead and the others were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries related to smoke inhalation, McKinnon said.

Fire officials said it appears the three-alarm blaze began on the second floor and then spread to other parts of the three-storey building as the residents were asleep.

The building has restaurants on the ground floor and a cluster of small apartments on the upper floors. The apartments all share a common kitchen and bathroom, a fire official said.

The building is equipped with smoke detectors but investigators have not confirmed whether they were functioning.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

March has been a deadly month for fires in Toronto.

Three people died after a fire broke out in an apartment above a vacant store on Dovercourt Road, near Dupont Street, on March 7.

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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.

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