Body found at fire scene
Early-morning downtown blaze called suspicious
Toronto Star
Nov 10, 2007 03:31 PM
Sarah Boesveld
Staff Reporters
Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew
A suspicious fire in a downtown construction site spread quickly this morning, destroying three unfinished town homes and igniting objects on balconies of nearby buildings. Investigators found a person dead in the ruins this afternoon.
Fire crews were called to an unfinished housing development at Carlton St. and Jarvis Street around 12:45 a.m. The flames were visible from blocks away as crews approached the scene.
Nearby buildings were evacuated as 110 firefighters struggled to contain the flames. About 150 people, mostly evacuated residents, watched the three-alarm fire from the sidewalk outside the building.
Three unfinished townhouses were destroyed, and were ablaze when crew arrived. The others remained relatively untouched by flames, Toronto police said. The crews kept the fire from engulfing nearby buildings.
The fire caused an estimated $700,000 damage.
The province’s Fire Marshal is investigating, and is treating the construction site as a crime scene. This afternoon, they were waiting for a structural engineer to assess what is left of the buildings.
The fire might not have spread as quickly if developers had installed sprinklers at the construction site, investigators say.
Neighbour Timothy Baubie was asleep in his third-floor condo and woke up to the sight and sound of towering flames.
Baubie, 41, grabbed his one-year-old beagle, Oscar, and ran downstairs. There he saw the fence, which separates his building from the construction site, on fire.
“I really thought it was going to catch our building on fire, too,†said Baubie, a TTC supervisor.
Objects on three balconies in his building caught fire from the intense heat and tall flames, including one on the 27th floor. Windows in the same building burst from the heat, while some, like Baubie’s, cracked extensively.
Baubie and roommate David Pernica, 34, said no work had been done on the town house development in nine months. A pile of unused lumber was set on fire at the same site just last spring, they said, but was contained.
“The thing’s a hazard. It’s so close to our building- you could literally toss a beer over to somebody, if you wanted to†said Pernica, who drinks his morning coffee on the balcony. He arrived home this morning to see the aftermath of the fire.
“I don’t think it should have ever been uilt.â€
