Mom, two children die in Hamilton fire
Flames poured from the windows of a Hamilton home early Saturday morning in a blaze that claimed the lives of a mother and two young children and sent seven others to hospital. Hamilton Fire Department spokesman Claudio Mostacci said firefighters were called to a house in the city’s north end at 4:30 a.m. Eleven residents were home at the twoand-a-half-storey house.
They arrived to find smoke and flames coming from the second floor, where eight residents had managed to escape by the time fire crews arrived, Mostacci told reporters.
Three bodies, which firefighters initially couldn’t locate, were found in the home on Saturday afternoon, fire officials said.
Police did not immediately release the names of those who died, but media reports identified them as Victoria Maire, her son Robert and daughter Abigail.
Neighbour Cheryl Sharp says her husband woke up to calls for help. She said he told her, “‘Get out of bed, get out of bed, there’s a fire,’ ” and he ran down the street.”
She said a mother and two infant children were in the home’s attic, which was engulfed in flames.
Sharp said the grandmother of the two infants was frantically calling for help. The grandmother, whom Sharp called Yvonne, was yelling, “My babies, my babies.”
“Everybody is devastated, it’s a great loss,” Sharp said, through tears. A gofundme.com page has been created for those killed. It asks for help with “funeral costs of young Robert and Abby, as well as mom Victoria.”
The page notes that father Daniel and two boys, Tayshawn and Dontay, survived the blaze.
The blaze reached a neighbouring house before firefighters could bring it under control.
Seven people from the first house were sent to hospital. No one was inside the second house at the time of the fire.
The cause of the fire is still unknown. Ontario’s fire marshal, police and the coroner are involved in the investigation.
Damage to the homes was estimated at $250,000.