“Thank God we got out with our lives”

Elaine Gordon (right) and daughter Tanika outside their apartment at 1457 Kingston Road

By Hedy Korbee

Elaine Gordon woke up at 5:20 this morning to a funny smell in her second-storey apartment and knew immediately that something was wrong.

Moments later she saw smoke, heard the fire alarm start to ring and sprang into action by getting dressed and rousting 22-year old daughter Tanika out of bed.

“We have to get out, we have to get out!,” Elaine recalled saying to her daughter.  “She (Tanika) opened the front door and the hallway was full of smoke. There’s just no way we could go through that so I said  call 911!”

With tears streaming down her face, Elaine stood outside 1457 Kingston Road and recounted her terrifying morning when fire broke out in the low-rise apartment building on Kingston Road between Warden Ave. and Manderly Dr.

This photo of the window of Elaine and Tanika Gordon's apartment was taken after they got out. Photo courtesy of Larry Thorne.

Fire started in ground floor bedroom

The two-alarm fire started in the ground-floor bedroom of an elderly resident, according to District Fire Chief John Zovak.

Toronto Fire despatched 16 units to the scene as the flames and smoke quickly spread throughout the building.

“We were very concerned for the safety of the occupants above the fire, “ Zovak said.  “Crews were quickly able to attack that fire by pulling walls and ceilings to stop it from getting into the rest of the building.  We employed ventilation very quickly to get a clear passage out.”

Elaine and Tanika were too frightened to wait for the fire department.

Photo courtesy of Larry Thorne

“The apartment started filling up with smoke and they (911) said ‘put a towel at the bottom of the door to keep the smoke out’ and I said no, it’s too late, the apartment is filling up with smoke.  So we stuck our head out the window to get some fresh air.”

Elaine and Tanika live directly above the apartment where the fire started and it wasn’t too long before they decided they had to evacuate the building on their own.

“It was getting harder to breathe so I said to my daughter “Let’s go, we have to go.”  We couldn’t see anything.  We opened the door, there was just smoke everywhere.  And then we could see the flames through the bathroom window and  I said “Oh my God, there’s flames. We’ve got to get out.  We’ve got to go.”

Photo courtesy of Larry Thorne

With Tanika leading the way, they left the apartment and tried to find the door to the stairwell.

“It was the scariest thing ever,” Tanika said. “Our lungs were burning, we were crying. It was really hard to breathe.

They were feeling their way by holding on to the walls when Tanika said she found a woman blocking the hallway.

“I bumped into her when I was dragging my mom behind me, “ Tanika said. “I didn’t know what to do because she wasn’t moving and I couldn’t just walk around her so I just said ‘Come with me, I know where the stairs are!’

Photo courtesy of Larry Thorne

With her mother still hanging on, Tanika grabbed the other women and headed for the stairwell and down the stairs to safety.

“And I told her where evey step was. We went down the first flight of stairs and at the last floor, she stopped, and I pulled her down and made sure she didn’t fall and carried her out.”

“Oh my God she practically carried that woman down the stairs because she wouldn’t move and we had to get out,” Elaine said.  “We couldn’t leave her behind so she (Tanika) practically picked her up and said “OK, we’ve got to go!”

The ground floor apartment where the fire began

Elaine and Tanika returned to their apartment later in the morning to salvage what they could but many of her belongings were destroyed by the fire and those that weren’t are covered in black soot.

They don’t have apartment insurance and are not sure where they’ll stay.

“Thank God we got out with our lives,” Elaine said.  “It was awful. It was awful.”

While the Gordon were making their own way out, firefighters were busy rescuing others who stayed in their apartments.

Although ladders were put in place, District Chief Zovak says they weren’t necessary thanks to firefighting and ventilation.

Five residents of the building were taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, according to Zovak, but the injuries are not believed to be serious.

The TTC provided buses for shelter for evacuees due to the frigid weather.  Zovak said they will try to return occupants to the building as quickly as possible.

The cause of the fire is unknown and the Fire Marshall’s Office is investigating.

Complete photo gallery below:

Unidentified resident of 1457 Kingston Road gets assistance leaving the building. Photo courtesy of Larry Thorne

Toronto EMS assisting residents. Photo courtesy of Larry Thorne

Inside the ground floor apartment where the fire began

Inside the ground floor apartment where the fire began

16 units responded to fire at 5:30am at 1457 Kingston Road

The building has three storeys in the front and four in the back. The fire broke out in the lowest blacked window in this photo.

Firefighters consulting by the light of day next to the TTC bus used to keep evacuees warm

Elaine Gordon, with Tanika, other daughter and friend talk to police to gain access to their burned out apartment

Timour Toutissani cradles his daughters' dog "Richie" who was left behind in the fire and rescued by firefighters

Damaged belongings going out the window