A deadly fire tore through a Brampton townhouse complex early Thursday morning, killing two people, injuring four others—including a 5-year-old child—and leaving three more unaccounted for.
Emergency crews responded just before 2:45 a.m. at McLaughlin Road and Remembrance Road. Video from the scene showed a semi-detached home fully engulfed in flames. Neighbours described heroic efforts by residents, including an eight-month-pregnant woman who managed to get herself and her five-year-old son onto a garage roof to escape the fire.
Two people were found unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene. Four others, including the mother and her son, were hospitalized with serious burns and smoke inhalation. Two additional residents escaped unharmed. Three people, including a toddler, remained missing.
Peel Police said the townhouse housed 11 individuals in total, mostly from a multi-generational family. Investigators are working to determine the cause of the blaze, with no confirmation yet on whether smoke detectors were functional.
Mayor Patrick Brown noted that the home’s absentee landlord had refused several inspections over the past six years and that the property was not licensed for multiple tenants. He emphasized the importance of adhering to building and fire codes to prevent such tragedies.
Update – The body of one of the unaccounted victims (an adult) has been found, police says on Friday Nov 21. While three of the hospitalized victims, including the 5-year-old son, remains in serious but stable condition, the fourth victim is now in critical condition.
Update 2 – On November 24, police confirmed that five people have died after having located additional remains in the burned home over the weekend.
The first search of the home last Thursday uncovered the bodies of a 27-year-old woman and a grandmother in her 50s. Follow-up searches over the next several days revealed a 29-year-old mother and her two-year-old child.
Four other individuals survived and remain in hospital in stable condition. One of them, a pregnant woman, underwent an emergency C-section; although she survived, her newborn later died, becoming the fifth fatality linked to the fire.