A nine-year-old Brampton girl suffered severe burns to her hands in a devastating fire that killed her sister, mother and father.
Peel Regional Police Const. Bancroft Wright told CP24 Wednesday morning that the child, who was the only survivor of the deadly house fire, arrived at SickKids Hospital in serious condition.
The fire broke out shortly after 4 a.m. at a residence on Madison Street, in the area of Dixie Road and Williams Parkway.
The girl, identified by friends of the family as nine-year-old Zoya Kapadia, was rescued from the main floor of the home by an occupant of the basement apartment prior to the arrival of first responders.
The little girl’s sister, 19-year-old Amina Kapadia, and their parents were found dead in the house a short time later.
A family friend told CTV News Toronto that the girl’s uncle and cousin visited her while she was at SickKids.
The friend said Zoya is “very scared” and has been asking for her parents.
She was treated for burns and remained in hospital overnight.
Fire officials told CP24 Tuesday that the three were found inside bedrooms in the rear of the semi-detached back-split home.
A neighbour who lives across the street from the now charred home placed flowers on the front lawn Wednesday morning.
He said he and his wife woke up yesterday to fire trucks on their street.
“It’s just sad… a young family like that. It breaks your heart,” Tom Sampson told CTV News Toronto.
“A small child like that, no parents, no sister. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. We’re all human, you know,” he continued, holding back tears.
“I don’t like to see stuff like that.”
Though it’s not clear if there were working smoke detectors in the home, a 19-year-old man who rescued the little girl from the burning home said he didn’t hear any alarms ringing at the time.
Sheldon Teague told CTV News Toronto Tuesday that he was in the basement unit of the home when he smelled smoke and heard screams coming from the main floor unit.
“I looked up at the vent and saw there was smoke coming out. So I put on my shoes right away, went outside and I already noticed the flames and smoke coming out the top of the house,” he said Tuesday.
Teague said the smoke was so thick that he couldn’t see the main floor until he turned on a flashlight.
Eventually, he spotted the little girl in the hallway and told her to crawl towards him.
“She said that she really couldn’t so I guess she was pretty badly hurt,” he said.
Teague said he quickly ran through the smoke, picked Zoya up and carried her out of the burning house.
By the time fire crews and EMS arrived at the scene, the little girl was already outside.
Brampton Fire Chief Michael Clark told reporters Tuesday that it appears the fire started on the main floor.
The Office of the Fire Marshal is currently on scene investigating the cause.
“At this time, we have no idea as to the cause of the fire,” Wright said, adding that more information should be available at some point on Wednesday.
