The mayor of Richmond Hill said losing an 11-year-old community member to a suspected arson is “heartbreaking.”
On Wednesday, York Regional Police announced one of the five family members taken to hospital in critical condition early Monday morning, a young girl, died in hospital of her injuries on Tuesday.
At the same time, investigators said they are now treating the fire as an arson and her death as a homicide.
“Richmond Hill is a community of communities and losing somebody like this 鈥 under any circumstances 鈥 is incredibly sad and it affects all of us,” Mayor David West said in a phone interview Wednesday.
Police have not released the victims’ identities.聽
Fire crews, police officers and paramedics all responded to the home on Skywood Drive around 3 a.m. on Monday. They found one victim outside and four others who were unconscious and had to be rescued from the burning, two-storey home.聽
West, who attended the home himself on Tuesday, commended the emergency services who responded to the blaze and worked to save the victims.
Four surviving family members, all adults, remain in critical condition, Insp. Paolo Fiore told reporters at a press conference at police headquarters in Aurora on Wednesday.
Richmond Hill fire Chief Bryan Burbidge said his team did an “incredible job” under difficult circumstances.
He said dispatchers were able to tell the teams responding that people were reportedly still inside the house, which allowed the commander and teams to prepare for what they were walking into.
At the same time he said, they don’t expect a fire of this magnitude.
“We hope that it never comes.”
Even with information about where victims may be inside a building, he said once inside, firefighters face numerous battles to get in and out safely.
“The people that are doing the work are in a pitch black room and the smoke and heat.”
He said his focus now as chief is on the mental well-being of his team after losing a member of the community.
The fire was initially deemed 鈥渟uspicious鈥 ahead of Wednesday鈥檚 press conference. An official from the office of the fire marshal earlier told reporters that the home had working smoke alarms.
The fire marshal continues to conduct a parallel investigation alongside police.
Fiore said Wednesday that police investigators were continuing to work through video, something he said takes time, and that they did not have a suspect description.
“This is very startling and alarming thing to happen,” Mayor West told the Star.
“Today more than anything our thought is with the families that are affected.鈥
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