The death of a young Oakville boy in a house fire only two days before Christmas had neighbours in tears.
"He's really a sweetheart," a sobbing Anne Marie Lavecchia told reporters Tuesday about five-year-old Bentley Slaughter. "He's so sweet. He didn't deserve this. Nobody does."
Scott Byrne, another neighbour, said: "He knew everybody, and everybody knew him. He was a very happy kid. Very shocking, to see him just gone like that."
Flowers, cards and teddy bears were seen piled on a snow mound in front of the home Tuesday morning.
He was a shy and intelligent little boy who loved playing with toy cars, said neighbour Malu Hohn.
"I can't believe it, I can't believe it," she told CTV Toronto. "He was just here with me yesterday. There's no more Christmas. I feel like Christmas is gone."
Sgt. Brian Carr of Halton Regional Police told ctvtoronto.ca that emergency crews were called to a blaze on White Oaks Boulevard at around 1 a.m. with two police officers arriving on the scene first.
The officers "received information that a female and young child were still in the residence," he said.
Neighbour Rose Charlton told CTV Toronto that the mother told them "'He's in there! He's in there!' She was quite badly burned, so they just wrapped her up and took her out of there."
The two constables then tried to enter the burning building, but they were "turned away by very heavy smoke," Carr said.
The fire department then arrived and (firefighters) got inside the burning structure and to the second floor where they believe the fire broke out. They found the boy and rushed him to hospital.
The boy was pronounced dead at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. His mother has been transferred to a hospital in Hamilton, where she is in serious condition. Media reported she suffered smoke inhalation and burns.
"I do know that the amount of smoke from the burning mattress on the second floor did create such a heavy smoke that it was almost impossible to see anything," said Andy Glynn, a deputy fire chief with Oakville Fire.
Carr said that the two officers who first responded to the call were also injured. They were taken to hospital and released.
Carr said there's no word yet on the cause of the fire. The smoke alarms inside the homes were working.
However, sometimes alarms aren't enough, said Oakville Fire Chief Richard Boyds.
"If this home were equipped with residential sprinklers, we may have had a different outcome," he said.
The Halton Regional Police Service, the Oakville Fire Department and the Ontario Fire Marshal's office will all be investigating.
With a report from CTV Toronto's John Musselman
