Man dead, 2 women injured after fire inside Markham townhouse
Fire believed to have started in garage then spread to interior of home, fire chief says
A man is dead and two women were injured after a fire in a Markham townhouse on Thursday.
The fire broke out in the home in the area of Pillar Rock Crescent and Hazelton Avenue near Highway 404 and Elgin Mills Road. Fire crews were called to the home at about 12:30 p.m.
Crews encountered a "large volume" of fire in the garage that had spread to the inside of the home, Markham Fire Chief Chris Nearing told reporters. An injured woman came out of the house to talk to the firefighters and told them there was a man inside.
Fire crews found the man and pulled him out of the home. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
York Regional Paramedics said they took the woman to hospital.
Nearing said there were working smoke alarms that likely allowed the woman who lived in the home to leave the premises.
Markham Battalion Fire Chief Steve Servinis said another woman, a neighbour, suffered smoke injuries and was also taken to hospital.
Ronald Chang, a next door neighbour, said he saw light smoke before hearing a commotion outside. When he opened the door, it was chaos, he said. He saw a fire truck and a firefighter told him to leave.
"Get out of the house! Get of the house!" he said he was told.
Chang said he saw the woman who lived next door after that.
"The wife — she was just in shock. She was just saying: 'My husband! My husband!' She had black soot on her face," he said.
The cause of the fire is still being determined.
With files from Dale Manucdoc