Father, son burnt in Wednesday morning Vaughan house fire

Woman forced to call 911 from decommissioned fire hall in Kleinburg

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 27, 2017
By Tim Kelly

A father and son were hospitalized with burns as the result of a massive house fire Wednesday morning in Kleinburg.

Firefighters were called to the home on Ava Place at 5:22 a.m. Sept. 27 after the female homeowner drove to the decommissioned fire station in Kleinburg to call 911 because "all the family's cellphones were plugged in, in the kitchen, which was on fire," Vaughan's deputy fire chief Deryn Rizzi said.

"On the outside of any fire station, there is a phone that calls directly to 911 and that's how we were called," Rizzi said.

According to Fire Chief Larry Bentley, the fire started in the kitchen, located in the rear area of the sprawling estate home. There  was extensive damage to the home, estimated to be in the millions of dollars.

The father and son were taken to Sunnybrook Hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries, Bentley said.

"We activated three alarms for this fire. By what you can see by what's left, it's been a total loss to this estate home. There's been two casualties transported to Sunnybrook hospital with non-life threatening injuries. A father and son. We're hearing 12-years-old (for the son) but we don't have confirmation on that. Primarily burns to their legs and their feet," he said.

"I can only guess (damage) will be in the millions of dollars. This looks like 10,000- to 12,000-square feet of home. It's an estate home, very expensive. It will be $2- to $3-million (in damage) easily."

Neighbour Kokila Jagani said she was "crying, crying, crying" when she learned about the fire.

"Every day I take a walk here and I saw there was a fire. I was so scared about what happened here in my neighbourhood," she said, adding three days earlier she and a friend who was visiting from India took a photo of the house because it was so beautiful, even in the neighbourhood of luxury homes.

"7:30 (a.m.) when I came here, I was literally crying, crying, crying. I was thinking too much about the people inside and the destroyed property, millions of dollars. I cried too much and my friend said the people inside will be fine."

Rizzi said the fire is now under control.

York Regional Police, the Ontario Fire Marshal & Emergency Management investigator and investigators with Vaughan fire are looking into the cause and origin of the blaze.

Investigators are asking witnesses who may have been in the area at the time of the incident to come forward. They are also seeking video surveillance from the area or anyone that may have captured dashcam video on the roadways around the house at the time.