Officials to discuss cause of fire that killed 4 in Upper Beaches
Posted February 4, 2021 9:03 am.
Fire officials are expected to provide an update Thursday morning on the cause of a house fire in the Upper Beaches last week that claimed the lives of four people.
Emergency crews were called to the home on Gainsborough Road, near Gerrard Street and Coxwell Avenue, around 4:30 a.m. for a three-alarm fire on Jan. 29 that damaged several neighbouring homes as well.
All four people who died were inside the home when the fire started. Two other people were taken to hospital, one in critical condition.
According to a pair of GoFundMe pages, the four who perished in the fire were Jana Jansons, Kai Jansons, Amanda Freimanis, and Matthew Zybdal. Arija Jansons, one of the survivors currently recovering in hospital, is the daughter of Jana, and the mother of Kai. Both Freimanis and Zybdal were friends of Arija.
RELATED: 4 people dead after 3-alarm house fire in Toronto’s east end
More than $130,000 has been raised on Jansons behalf to help with funeral and other costs associated with recovery.
Two firefighters were also injured while battling the stubborn blaze but both have been released from hospital and are doing OK.
One of the key questions asked in the wake of the tragedy was whether or not the home was equipped with working smoke detectors.
Jason Williams, an investigator with the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office, said at the time the deaths of four people in a single fire were “extremely rare,” adding that one of the questions they would seek to answer was whether or not smoke detectors were present and working at the time of the fire.
