One person is dead after an early morning fire on Saturday below a cell tower in Liberty Village.
Toronto Police say officers responded to multiple reports of a blaze near Liberty St. and Jefferson Ave. — southeast of Dufferin and King Sts. — shortly after 6 a.m.
Toronto Fire Capt. Bill Papakonstantinou says the victim was found dead right at the base of the fire after it was put out by emergency crews.
He said it looks like the deceased was either living or temporarily staying underneath the cell tower in an encampment.
Toronto Fire, the Office of the Chief Coroner, the Office of the Fire Marshal and Toronto Police are now investigating.
An outreach worker at Toronto’s Sanctuary shelter told CP24 on Saturday that fires are a concern for the homeless during the winter months.
“When you can’t stay inside, you’ve got to find ways to keep warm, right?” said Greg Cook.
“If you’re wet, you need to warm up. And so then fires are an issue and every winter there’s a huge uptick in frostbite and hypothermia in hospitals and emergency rooms and there’s a huge uptick in fire burns and deaths, frankly, and so we knew this would happen. It’s just really awful.”
An encampment fire under the Gardiner in Toronto last month left one man seriously injured.
— With files from CP
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