NEWS

Life threatened in three-alarm Parkwoods apartment fire

A seven-storey apartment building in Parkwoods was briefly evacuated on Friday when firefighters were called to a fire in a fifth-floor unit.

A man trapped in the burning apartment was rescued and treated for life-threatening injuries, according to fire officials.

Several other people were treated onsite by paramedics for smoke inhalation.

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Firefighters were called to the building known as York Mills Place at 1284 York Mills Rd., west of Victoria Park Avenue,  before 6 p.m. on Oct. 18. They forced entry into the fifth-floor unit where the fire was blazing and found a man who was immediately rescued. He was turned over to Toronto Medics in life-threatening condition.

Despite the fire being confined to one unit, it  became a three-alarm fire (requiring 14 to 17 emergency vehicles) because smoke filtered throughout the building, fire officials said.

Toronto fire chief Matthew Pegg said shortly after 7 p.m. the fire had been extinguished and the building freed of smoke. Residents were being returned to their apartments then.

The  cause of the fire is being investigated by the Toronto Fire Service and the Office of the Fire Marshal and Emergency Management.