Family mourning death of 3-year-old fire victim
Homicide unit has taken over investigation from the coroner’s office
Family and friends are mourning the death of a three-year-old boy pulled from a fire in a basement apartment on the west Mountain Monday morning.
Hamilton police confirmed they were taking over the investigation from the coroner’s office in a news release issued Tuesday morning, but declined to comment further.
The Spectator has confirmed the homicide unit is investigating.
Ontario’s pediatric death proto- col mandates all sudden deaths of children under five are investigated by police, and in Hamilton these cases are always handled by the homicide unit.
Family and friends identified the boy as three-year-old Cayden. He was pulled by firefighters from
the basement of 240 Golden Orchard Dr., where crews found a well-involved fire shortly after 10 a.m. Monday.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to support funeral expenses for the family.
“Tragedy struck our family, Cayden (3) lost his little life on the morning of May 1 2017. Fire broke out in a basement apartment on Hamilton Mountain and Cayden was not able to survive,” wrote Cassandraa Buckland, a cousin.
She later said: “Cayden’s mother Susan (Decker) is OK, but an emotional wreck at this time.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, the fund had raised $1,300.
Neighbours said the mother was cooking upstairs when she noticed smoke, and then found the fire. She was transported to hospital for possible smoke inhalation and has since been released.
The home is owned by a family member, but no one else was home at the time of the fire.
On Tuesday afternoon, police tape remained around the home — a duplex in a residential neighbourhood near Garth Street and the Lincoln Alexander Parkway.
A police cruiser was parked out front near a makeshift memorial with flowers and a yellow stuffed duck.
The Ontario Fire Marshal’s office was also on scene Monday to investigate. There has been no word on cause of fire.