Rooming house owners to face charges after fatal fire
Toronto Fire carried out inspections of multiple properties after woman died in Willowdale blaze
The owners of a Willowdale rooming house are accused of multiple violations of Ontario’s fire code after a blaze last fall killed a woman.
Firefighters pulled the 47-year-old woman from a burning bungalow at 177 Elmhurst Ave., a residential street near Yonge St. and Sheppard Ave. W., on Nov. 30.
The woman, who was not identified, received CPR but was later pronounced dead at hospital.
Toronto Fire Service announced Friday that, after an investigation into that blaze and other properties owned by Thevathurai Akilan, Balatharshini Akilan and AKS Rental Management Inc., will face provincial charges.
If convicted of failing to have a fire alarm system, failure to have an approved fire safety plan, breaches in fire separations and other infractions, the individuals could face hefty fines and jail time. The corporation could be fined up to $100,000 per violation. Judges rarely, however, hand out penalties near the maximum.
After the fire, inspections were carried out at 45 Irvington Cres., a house near Sheppard Ave. and Hwy. 401, and 57 Farmcrest Dr., a house near Pharmacy Ave. and Sheppard Ave. E., owned by the same people.
“The fire safety inspections confirmed the buildings were occupied as multi-unit residential buildings and revealed numerous violations of the Ontario Fire Code,” a Toronto Fire news release states. A man who answered the phone at AKS Rental Management Inc. told the Star: “I think you have the wrong number.” When the reporter noted a photo of the home that caught fire is featured on the AKS website with the word “Rented,” he hung up. The website says the company, started in 1988, is based in Toronto and also owns properties in Ottawa.
“We also offer our best service to the students, professionals and foreign nationals who like to secure an accommodation before they arrive here in Ontario, Canada,” the website says.
City staff have identified hundreds of illegal rooming houses in North York, East York and Scarborough, where local rules prohibit them opening.
In the old city of Toronto and Etobicoke, where they can be licensed and regulated — including fire inspections — more than 400 properties are registered.
Rooming houses can operate without a licence in the former York.
City staff last year proposed expanding areas of Toronto where rooming houses can be legal and subject to regulation and inspection. Some suburban councillors, however, oppose the idea.
John Filion, who represents Willowdale on city council, said two types of illegal rooming houses are a problem in his ward — older homes bought as an investment and chopped into rental rooms for quick income and newer, often larger, homes subdivided primarily for rental to college and university students.
“I would guess that, of all the basement (units) in my ward, less than 10 per cent would be meeting fire code requirements,” he said.
The councillor said city staff tell him they have limited powers under provincial law to gain entry to suspected rooming houses. Fire officials tell him they need good reason to investigate a suspected fire code violation.
A 2014 report by the Wellesley Institute said the stereotype of the rooming house as a downtown issue has overshadowed the fact that this is a form of affordable housing that exists across Toronto.
“As rooming houses have surfaced in suburban communities, their legal status has left them unregulated and has prevented them from being seen as an affordable housing option,” the report titled: “Toronto’s Suburban Rooming House: Just Spin on a Downtown “‘Problem?’ ” states.
The focus needs to shift from the “imagined geography of a 1970s skid row neighbourhood and into a contemporary vision of affordable housing options for all.” With files from Betsy Powell