Crews are searching for the body of a 12-year-old boy believed to be inside of a house in Markham where an explosion and fire occurred on Sunday.
Witnesses said they heard a loud bang coming from a townhouse at around 10 a.m., where a fire subsequently broke out and spread to adjacent homes, according to CP24.
Police say a woman identified by family members as Chia Hamid, and her two sons, Ahmed, 14, and Zheer, 6, were able to escape the fire.
Investigators believe that one of the victims escaped from a second-floor window while the other two were able to leave through the front door.
The mother and her two sons were taken to the hospital. Police said that all three are currently in critical condition.
The children's father, Tahir, Hamid, was not home when the fire started.
When the fire was brought under control, emergency crews learned that another son, 12-year-old Aran Hamid, had not yet been located.
The father had to watch on as workers used heavy machinery comb through the wreckage in search of his missing son.
"I was coming to Canada to save my family," Tahir Amid told reporters before being overcome with emotion.
The Kurdish family came to Canada three years ago from Iran.
Investigators with the Office of the Fire Marshal (OFM) that no one has been able to enter residence due to structural concerns.
OFM Supervisor Jeff Tebby said that it is believed that the body of the missing boy is in the basement of the home.
“It will be a systematic, detailed search of the basement once we get in there, removing debris with the heavy equipment and then digging, raking, sifting by hand.”
He said that after doing work at the rear of the residence in order to access the gas line, crew have now moved to the front of the townhouse.
"We are now transitioning to the front to begin demolition of the units adjacent to the unit of origin so that we can safely get into the basement and go through the basement to look for the victim and conduct our origin and cause investigation," he said.
It is currently known what the cause of the fire might have been, but police said there is no indication that it was suspicious in nature.
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