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Man in 70s dead, woman critically injured following fire at apartment in Toronto's east end
Man in 70s dead, woman critically injured following fire at apartment in Toronto's east end

CTV News

time21-07-2025

  • CTV News

Man in 70s dead, woman critically injured following fire at apartment in Toronto's east end

Officials say residents attempted to rescue two people from a burning apartment in Leslieville where one person eventually died. Officials say residents attempted to rescue two people from a burning apartment in Leslieville where one person eventually died. A man in his 70s has died and a woman is fighting for her life in hospital following an apartment fire in Toronto east end early Sunday morning. Police say shortly after midnight they responded to a call for a fire in the Leslieville neighbourhood. The blaze broke out at 1320 Gerrard St. E. at Glenside Avenue, just east of Greenwood Avenue - less than a block away from the Festival of South Asia. Toronto fire told CP24 that crews were met with 'heavy smoke' on the fourth floor of a building. They also confirmed that one person was pronounced dead in hospital. Paramedics say a woman, who they said is in her 70s, was transported to the hospital in critical condition. A third patient was also taken to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries, fire officials said. EMS Toronto EMS responding to the scene of an apartment fire on Sunday July 20, 2025 (CP24 photo). Area resident Derrik Kinear stopped by the building on Sunday. He said that he knew the man who died, adding that he lived there with a caregiver. 'It's pretty sad. You know, somebody lost their life,' he said. Toronto fire has since confirmed that a woman in her 60s was rushed to the hospital with serious burns. They say the two were trapped inside the unit while neighbours were trying to help them get out. 'On arrival at the fourth floor, there were some residents attempting to rescue the occupants,' Division Commander Paul O'Brien said. 'We rescued two occupants, brought them down to the lobby. One occupant was vital signs absent.' Rick Littlejohn lives across the street and said he saw crews battling the two-alarm fire just after midnight. '(The firefighters were) working hard. They tried, they really tried,' he said. 'I thought the lights were from the festival.' Images provided to CTV News Toronto by a resident show the severe damage to the unit visible from the hall. Fire investigation now underway The Office of the Fire Marshal has been notified and is attending to investigate the cause of the fire, which remains unknown at this time. Toronto police forensics was also seen at the scene. Gerrard was closed at Greenwood, but has since reopened. With files from CTV News Toronto's Sean Leathong

City names laneway after Black woman who made difference to early Toronto
City names laneway after Black woman who made difference to early Toronto

CBC

time04-07-2025

  • General
  • CBC

City names laneway after Black woman who made difference to early Toronto

Toronto has officially named a laneway in the city's east end after a Black woman who made a big impact on her community in the early 1900s. Coun. Paula Fletcher, who represents Toronto-Danforth, unveiled the new street sign for "Luella Price Lane" on Friday. The laneway runs east of Greenwood Avenue and north of Gerrard Street E. in Leslieville. Fletcher said the location is near where Luella Price, a pioneering woman, formed the Eureka Club in her home on Redwood Avenue in 1910. In a Feb. 20 letter to the Toronto and East York Community Council, Fletcher said the Eureka Club, composed of less than 20 women, aimed to offer aid to low-income Torontonians on an individual basis. Many of the spouses of club members were railway porters. The motto of the Eureka Club was "not for ourselves, but for others." At its 70th anniversary in 1980, it was said to be the oldest Black women's organization in Ontario, according to Fletcher. "We're very proud of the work that Luella and her club did on Redwood," Fletcher told a small gathering before the unveiling. "They established a club that did good things for the entire neighbourhood." Fletcher said the naming of the laneway honours Price and recognizes her contributions to Leslieville and Toronto. She said the Leslieville Historical Society, East York Historical Society and Gerrard East neighbourhood pushed to have the laneway named after her sooner but the COVID-19 pandemic ground their efforts to a halt. "We can see what an important moment this is, not just for our neighbourhood, but for the city to recognize someone of this stature and what she did. I think the motto, 'not for ourselves, but for others,' does really speak to our whole neighbourhood. That is how we try to live our lives in the east end," Fletcher said. Joanne Doucette, a founding member of the Leslieville Historical Society, told the gathering that Price was a free woman of colour in Maryland. Of humble origins, Price married Grandison Price, a man born into slavery in Kentucky, in 1875. They had a baby that died, and headed north to Toronto, where they worked a number of jobs to survive. They bought a house in Toronto. The Eureka Club was formed to aid anyone who needed it without fanfare, Doucette said. It came about after they heard about a pregnant young woman who didn't have anything, including baby clothes, and needed help. The club was a member of the Congress of Black Women of Canada, an organization that still exists, Doucette said. "Their work goes on. I am so glad that we are finally recognizing Luella, and by extension, Grandison. They certainly had the support of their husbands," she said. "This is history that has been lost. In these times, when there is a pushback against human rights and diversity, it is so timely that we are here today." Rosemary Sadlier, former president of the Ontario Black History Society, said the work of the Leslieville Historical Society in bringing forward the story of Price is critical because so often the lived experience and reality of many Black people in many places in Canada has been erased. Sadlier said rediscovering and reimagining Price is an opportunity for city residents to "become even more engaged in the diversity and the complexity and the nuance" of early Toronto. "I think it's a wonderful reminder and a tangible expression of the early Black presence in the area," Sadlier said in an interview after the unveiling.

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