One woman is dead and a man is in critical condition after being burned at a downtown rooming house in an incident police are calling suspicious.
"This is a suspicious fire, and the death is also being considered suspicious in nature," Insp. Rueben Stroble of the Toronto Police Service told reporters.
Steve Massee and others say they saw something chilling.
"There was a woman, younger girl I guess, and she was being pulled out by the guy over there who is talking to the police officers," he said. "And she had her throat slit and he was pulling her out and she was burnt."
Paramedics took her to Sunnybrook hospital, but doctors there couldn't save her.
Capt. Mike Strapko of Toronto Fire told CTV News he didn't know the victim's age.
The basement fire occurred at about 10 a.m. Friday at 502 Huron St., which is near Bloor Street West.
Firefighters and police responded to the scene. The victims were rushed to hospital with what had been described as serious and extensive burns.
Strapko said the structure was a licenced rooming house with a fire safety plan. Someone was out front to meet the fire crews as they arrived.
He didn't have details on what happened, saying the matter is being investigated by the Ontario Fire Marshal's Office and the Toronto Police Service.
CTV Toronto reported that after assessing the scene, police ordered firefighters to leave the building and briefly called in the Emergency Task Force.
Police at the scene wouldn't share much information with reporters, but homicide investigators were reportedly been brought in.
CTV Toronto reported that the man and woman lived in different units within the rooming house, and that different parts of the dwelling were under investigation.
As a result of the investigation, many building residents have to find somewhere else to sleep on Friday night.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Galit Solomon
