An elderly woman, who was trapped by fire inside a supportive housing facility in east London, has died.
Fire crews were called to Maple Village Residence, a 45-unit wheelchair accessible facility on Hamilton Rd., near Hyla St., just after noon on Wednesday. The woman was unconscious when firefighters rescued her from an upper unit that was filled with thick smoke.
She was rushed to hospital were she died from her injuries hours later.
While the fire was contained to the unit where the woman lived with her husband, the rest of the facility was evacuated as a precaution. Those residents were allowed to return to the building late Wednesday.
Damage is estimated at $100,000.
Assistant Deputy Chief Jack Burt said the fire is being attributed to careless smoking.
It is London's second fatal fire of the year. The first, in February, claimed the life of a 76-year-old woman at an apartment at 744 Fanshawe Park Rd. east of Adelaide St. That blaze was also blamed on careless smoking.
"If you do smoke we recommend that you smoke outside," said Burt. "If you are not smoking outside make sure when you put your cigarette out you put it right out. Put it right out every time."
It is believed the Hamilton Rd. fire was sparked by a cigarette purchased on a First Nation reserve. Burt said, unlike those identified by an Ontario-adapted federal tobacco stamp on their packaging, many cigarettes available in aboriginal communities are not reduced ignition propensity cigarettes. That means they do not self-extinguish when left unpuffed and can smolder if dropped on mattresses, furniture, or other combustible materials.
"With the introduction of the low propensity materials in [legal] cigarettes, with them self extinguishing it greatly reduced the number of cigarette fires that we have had in London," said Burt.
Since the start of the year, there have been over 20 fires caused by careless disposal of smoking materials.
