Mother breaks window to help 10-month old baby escape apartment fire
A family is breathing a sigh of relief after a terrifying fire at an apartment in Etobicoke forced a mother to break a second-floor window to save her 10-month-old daughter.
Tamara Harris said she was stuck inside a building unit with her young daughter as smoke started filling the hallways of the apartment on Eighth Street near Lake Shore Boulevard West on Wednesday morning.
Panicking, she said she broke a window in order to pass her baby to someone outside of the burning building.
She said a neighbour down below reached up and grabbed the baby.
Harris said she suffered extensive cuts on her hand and wrists when she smashed the second storey window.
“I said okay. My baby is going is to suffocate. We are going to die in here so I punched in the window,” she said.
She said firefighters eventually arrived and helped Harris out of the building. Both she and the baby were taken to hospital and are now in good health. They are currently waiting to be placed in a hotel.
Tenant Andre Johnson says the smoke was really thick. He said he ran to the exit door before firefighters arrived and started calling out to the residents in the hallway to come towards the sound of his voice.
Firefighters say they had the fire under control quickly, but two units suffered extensive damage. Tenants say it was a frightening situation.
TTC buses were brought in to provide shelter from the cold. The superintendent says more than 40 people were forced out of their units.
Some are being temporarily moved to vacant units in an adjacent building while others are staying with friends.
Watson and Harris said their daughter had some health issues when she was born and she spent the first few weeks of her life in hospital receiving treatment.
Now, months later, the little girl has survived a fire.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Former Air Canada employees among suspects identified in gold heist at Pearson Airport: police
Nine people have been arrested in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year, Peel Regional Police said Wednesday.
MPs summon ArriveCan contractor to the House to be admonished in rare parliamentary display
Enacting an extraordinarily rarely used parliamentary power, MPs have summoned an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon to be admonished publicly for failing to answer their questions.
'Enormous sum of money': Actor Hugh Grant settles privacy lawsuit against tabloid
British actor Hugh Grant has settled a lawsuit against the publisher of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid newspaper, The Sun, over claims journalists used private investigators to tap his phone and burgle his house, he said on Wednesday.
Gas prices across Ontario expected to climb to levels not seen since 2022, analyst says
Ontario is going to see a big jump at the pumps later this week as gas prices in the province hit levels not seen in nearly two years, according to one industry analyst.
Ancient skeletons unearthed in France reveal Mafia-style killings
More than 5,500 years ago, two women were tied up and probably buried alive in a ritual sacrifice, using a form of torture associated today with the Italian Mafia, according to an analysis of skeletons discovered at an archaeological site in southwest France.
O.J. Simpson was chilling with a beer on a couch before Easter, lawyer says. 2 weeks later he was dead
O.J. Simpson's last robust discussion with his longtime lawyer was just before Easter, at the country club home Simpson leased southwest of the Las Vegas Strip. About a week later, on April 5, a doctor said Simpson was 'transitioning.'
Some of the winners and losers in the 2024 federal budget
With a variety of fiscal and policy measures announced in the federal budget, winners include small businesses and fintech companies while losers include the tobacco industry and Canadian pension funds.
U.K. plan to phase out smoking for good passes first hurdle
The British government's plan for a landmark smoking ban that aims to stop young people from ever smoking cleared its first hurdle in Parliament on Tuesday despite vocal opposition from within Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party.
Father of boy accused of stabbing 2 Australian clerics saw no signs of extremism, Muslim leader says
The father of a boy accused of stabbing two Christian clerics in Australia saw no signs of his son’s extremism, a Muslim community leader said on Wednesday as police began arresting suspected rioters who besieged a Sydney church demanding revenge.