Domenic Ferrantone was walking to his car at 6:15 a.m. on Saturday, May 6, when he noticed flames across the street creeping up the side of his neighbours’ house on Canyon Hill Road by Elgin Mills Road West and Bathurst Street. At the sight of the fire, he directed his wife to warn the neighbours at the houses adjacent to the fire, and he immediately called 911. And then he ran toward the fire, which was quickly engulfing the front of the house, to wake up his neighbours.
“They were in bed. As I was knocking, the fire alarm went off,” recalled Ferrantone, who was up early to head in to work at the Eagles Nest Golf Club.
“The poor lady was half asleep. She thought it was a car alarm. I was just about to kick in the door and she opened the door.”
He was able to get the three people in the house — a woman and her child and a nanny — out safely. The fire, caused by an electrical spark in the walls, died down at around 9:30 a.m. “We pass that house every day,” said Ferrantone.
“Even though we don’t really know them, we always wave because we’ve been there for 13 years. They’re my neighbours. You’d want neighbours to help. At the moment, you’d hope everybody would do the same.”