A University of Toronto student has died following a fire at a Scarborough home early this morning.
The fire broke out at a single, detached house on Haida Court, near Morningside Avenue and Ellesmere Road, shortly before 2:30 a.m.
Firefighters were called to the area after receiving multiple calls about a structure fire on Haida Court.
Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop said crews were met with heavy flames and smoke when they arrived on scene.
Three occupants, one female and two males, escaped the fire and were rushed to hospital for treatment.
“One of them actually escaped by jumping out of the second-floor window,” Jessop said.
A fourth occupant, identified as an 18-year-old woman, was later found dead on the second floor of the home.
The name of the victim has not yet been released.
“It was a significant fire, significant damage. We have structurally instability at this time. That’s one of the reasons why we have to leave the deceased in the building at this point until we can make it safe for our crews to safely remove her,” he said.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
“Toronto Fire Service investigators are on scene right now. They have commenced an investigation into the origin, cause, and circumstances of this fire,” Jessop said.
The Office of the Fire Marshal has also been notified.
“We will be working with the OFM and Toronto police certainly over the next day or two as the investigation proceeds,” Jessop added.
Toronto Fire was not able to provide an update on the condition of the three occupants hospitalized following the blaze.
An official from the University of Toronto confirmed that all four of the occupants of the home were international students from China who attend U of T's Scarborough campus.
'We need to know what happened,' fire chief says
Speaking to reporters at the scene Wednesday, Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg offered “heartfelt condolences” to the family of the victim and those impacted by the fire.
“This breaks my heart to see this,” Pegg said. “This is a very deep tragedy and we need to know what happened.”
Pegg said it is too early to tell where the fire started in the home and could not comment on whether there were working smoke detectors.
“We won’t know the status of anything to do with smoke alarms or building conditions until the investigation is complete,” he said.
Pegg estimated that Toronto Fire officials will likely be on scene for the next couple of days.
“There is an extraordinary amount of damage to this building,” the fire chief said.
“We have a lot of concerns around structural stability.”
He added that heavy equipment may be required to remove debris.
Pegg commended firefighters for preventing the spread of the fire to adjacent structures.
Link to original article in CTV News: One dead, three injured after house fire in Scarborough