A man is dead after a fire in a Markham townhouse on Thursday.
The fire broke out in the home in the area of Pillar Rock Crescent and Hazelton Avenue near Highway 404 and Elgin Mills Road. Fire crews were called to the home at about 12:30 p.m.
Crews encountered a “large volume” of fire in the garage that had spread to the inside of the home, Markham Fire Chief Chris Nearing told reporters. An injured woman came out of the house to talk to the firefighters and told them there was a man inside.
Fire crews found the man and pulled him out of the home. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
York Regional Paramedics said they took the woman to hospital.
Nearing said there were working smoke alarms that likely allowed the woman to leave the home.
Ronald Chang, a next door neighbour, said he saw light smoke before hearing a commotion outside. When he opened the door, it was chaos, he said. He saw a fire truck and a firefighter told him to leave.
“Get out of the house! Get of the house!” he said he was told.
Chang said he saw the woman who lived next door after that.
“The wife – she was just in shock. She was just saying: ‘My husband! My husband!’ She had black soot on her face,” he said.
The cause of the fire is still being determined.
