Elderly woman dies of injuries suffered in fire sparked by careless smoking

An elderly woman rushed to hospital after a fire at an east London supportive housing facility has died of her injuries.

Fire officials, police, and EMS were called to the blaze at Maple Village, a 45-unit complex on Hamilton Road west of Highbury Avenue, over the noon hour on Wednesday.

On Thursday, fire officials confirmed the woman died Wednesday night in hospital and that the blaze was sparked by careless smoking and caused roughly $130,000 in damage. The deceased’s name and age have not been released.

“I was always afraid that this would happen in spite of all the efforts that we made not to have our residents smoke in the building,” said Maple Village owner Francine Lacroix.

“That and a missing resident are our worst nightmares.”

Lacroix said the building is equipped with a sprinkler system and smoke detectors are located in every room.

The victim’s husband has been transferred to Queens Village, a 63 unit retirement home for seniors in London.

“”He had victim services in today to talk to him for some counselling. They were married 41 years so that’s a long time to be married to somebody,” said Jeanette Langford, director of care at Queens Village.

“He’s going to stay with us for a little bit of time until we can figure out what we’re going to do at Maple (Village)… so we’re just getting everything in order for him, trying to make him feel as welcome as possible.

According to the London Fire Department, there have been 20 fires caused by careless smoking so far in 2017 resulting in two deaths, multiple injuries, and over $500,000 in damage.

“Careless smoking continues to be the leading cause of fire deaths in London and the province of Ontario,” deputy fire chief Jack Burt told 980 CFPL.

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“We’re seeing far too many fires caused by careless disposal of smoking materials. In the last three years, we’ve had four fire deaths here in London and three of them have been attributed to careless smoking.”

Burt added that in all three of those cases, contraband cigarettes were involved.

“Store-bought cigarettes have the potential to self-extinguish based on low propensity material that’s inside them. Cigarettes that are bought from Indigenous peoples typically do not have that low-propensity material on them and as a result, we are seeing those cigarettes involved in these fires.”

– With files from Liny Lamberink