A trailer fire in Oshawa Saturday afternoon has left a child dead.
Durham police confirmed a youth was found dead inside a trailer after emergency crews responded to an Elgin Street fire just before 2:20 p.m. on Oct. 18.
Officers arrived at the scene within three minutes of the initial call and found a trailer “fully engulfed in flames,” said Acting Staff Sgt. Joanne McCabe near the scene on Saturday evening.
One person was found dead inside the trailer and two other people — a man and a woman — were taken to a local hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, added McCabe.
Police confirmed the victim was a child but could not provide an age for the deceased.
According to Stephen Barkwell, the Oshawa fire chief, firefighters “encountered heavy smoke and flames” when they arrived at the scene and “tried for a quick rescue.”
Four fire trucks and a command vehicle were dispatched to the call and a fifth fire truck later arrived at the scene.
Twenty-two firefighters were at the scene and two of those were treated for minor burns, said Barkwell.
“It is very traumatic — it’s traumatic for our crews, it’s traumatic for the community,” said the fire chief about the death of a child.
The cause of the blaze was not immediately known and the Ontario fire marshal was called to investigate, said Barkwell.