FAMILY LUCKY to be alive.
A young family is lucky to be alive after a harrowing early morning fire at an Eighth Street apartment building that forced them to escape from a second floor window.
A quick thinking Tamara Harris was stuck inside a unit with her young daughter as smoke started filling the hallways of the apartment on Wednesday morning.
Harris managed to break a window to pass her baby to safety. She was treated in hospital for several cuts and bruises to her hand suffered from smashing the window.
There was no fire in her unit but there was smoke in the hallway.
FIRE FIGHTERS, police and ambulance crews tended to at least five residents, one who jumped from a second floor window. They were treated for minor injuries.
Area resident Christina Murrie, who works nearby, said there were about 10 firetrucks, ambulances and
TTC buses at what turned out to be a two-alarm blaze around 7 a.m. on January 26.
“I didn’t see a fire or smoke but there was a lot of activity,” Murrie said.
Fire officials said at one point flames and heavy smoke were billowing from one of the windows.
Paramedics said a man in his 40s was treated for minor smoke inhalation. Five others were examined at the scene.
A FAMILY WAS left homeless in the 7 a.m. fire in which a baby was treated and mother hospitalized for cuts.
No one was in the unit where the fire broke out and it was contained to that apartment. However, smoke spread throughout the building.
The fire was quickly knocked down. It so happened that Toronto Fire Station 435, at 130 Eighth Street, is located across the street from the building.
One witness said it is believed the fire began after someone fell asleep with a cigarette burning.
They said two apartment units were engulfed in flames. One was gutted.