Werner Schmidt lost his 63-year-old wife in a Leslieville townhouse fire but was able to help save a toddler from the smoke and flames that fire officials likened to a blowtorch at one point.

"She couldn't get out the door,  (so) she wanted to get rid of the baby , so I told her, 'Throw it,'" Schmidt told CTV Toronto on Tuesday in an exclusive interview. She moved to a second-floor window, he said.

"I said, 'throw the baby,' and I caught the baby because I knew I couldn't do anything for my wife."

Paramedics whisked off the toddler, 20-month-old Ana Christina Ocaranza, to hospital. She suffered from minor smoke inhalation but will be okay.  The mother also suffered from smoke inhalation. Both are reportedly doing fine at East General Hospital.

Damage from the fire is estimated to be $400,000, with five units affected. Seventeen people are homeless tonight.

Schmidt's disabled wife Lulu is dead after the three-alarm blaze in a townhouse complex on Queen Street East. Firefighters removed her body from a rear balcony. She is the third fire death of 2009.

The fire broke out at the back end of one unit at 1367 Queen Street East, on Knox Avenue between Greenwood Avenue and Leslie Street, at around 11:20 a.m.

In a news release, Toronto fire said, "Upon arrival, fire crews reported flames coming out of both the front and rear of the unit like a blowtorch."

 The fire then spread to two adjacent units but only caused minimal damage to those homes. Thick black smoke could be seen blocks away.

Toronto Fire Services confirm there was a minor explosion inside the unit.

Lulu, a grandmother, was using an oxygen tank for medical reasons. "The only thing I can think of is that she had a smoke," Werner said.

Fire Chief Bill Stewart told reporters at the scene that the victim was a smoker but that the cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

The deceased woman's husband had just left the house to bring a neighbour to the dentist at the time the fire occurred. When he came back, his home was in flames.

Neighbours reported seeing the woman trapped on her balcony when the fire started. Paramedics found her on the balcony and carried her to safety but they were not able to revive her. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The victim was a "sweet, friendly" woman who always chatted with everyone, neighbours said.

Other heroices

Schmid helped with the toddler, but others helped the woman to escape from the fire using a ladder.

CTV Toronto talked to two other men involved in the rescue.

"It wasn't really thinking, it was more reacting. I do the maintenance there so I knew where the ladder was," said one man who identified himself only as Thomas. "I grabbed Michael and said, 'let's take off down there (and) grab the ladder.'"

His friend Michael Knox said he held the ladder and helped the toddler's mother out as Thomas went to clear out the other units.

"Just as I was turning around to go help empty the units, one of the windows blew out," he said, guessing it was an oxygen tank that exploded.

At the fire's peak, 80 firefighters and 18 trucks were on scene.

The Fire Marshal's Office is to examine the circumstances of the fire.

Stewart said the townhouse complex was built in the 1980s when residential sprinklers were not legally required to be installed.

"As far as I'm concerned, whenever you sprinkler a residence you're going to increase the escape time," he said. "Obviously here there was no escape time." 

With a report from CTV Toronto's Tom Hayes