No working smoke alarms found in North York apartment following fire that left mother, 2 children critically injured

There were no working smoke alarms in a North York apartment unit where a fire broke out over the weekend, leaving a mother and her two children in critical condition.

Jon Pegg, the province's fire marshal, provided the update on the Wilson Avenue fire on Tuesday.

"What we do know is that there were no working smoke alarms found in that residence," Pegg said.

He noted that the investigation into the fire's cause, origin and circumstances is ongoing.

Shortly before 9 p.m. on Saturday, crews were called to a third-floor unit of a building in the area of Wilson Avenue and Murray Road, east of Keele Street.

Firefighters initiated a search of the unit and found three occupants inside. They were rushed to hospital with critical injuries.

"We have three people, (including) two young children, in hospital in critical care as the result of having no working smoke alarms," Pegg said.

"Please check your smoke alarms and make sure that they're working. They really are the difference in saving lives. And I challenge everybody to do that."

In addition to investigating what led to the fire, Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg said they also had initiated an inspection concerning the compliance of the building under the Ontario Fire Code.

“That investigative and inspection work is ongoing. And I can assure all Torontonians that once that is done, in the event that our inspectors and our investigators determine that there were violations of the Ontario Fire Code, as we always do, we will take the appropriate enforcement action with respect to those violations,” Pegg said.