On the afternoon of December 16, Toronto Fire Services responded to a fire at 824 St. Clair Ave. W. Tragically, in the course of the emergency response, a fire truck struck an 11-year-old girl who was crossing Oakwood and Rosemount Aves. She remains in hospital, recovering from serious injuries. My thoughts, and the thoughts of the entire Toronto Fire Services team, are with the young girl and her family during this difficult time. Each of us sincerely hopes for a full and speedy recovery.
Today, the Toronto Police Service charged the firefighter driving the fire truck with two violations under the Highway Traffic Act, including careless driving causing bodily harm and with overtaking another vehicle already stopped at a crossover.
Toronto Fire Services has co-operated fully with police throughout their independent investigation, and continues to do so. Toronto Fire Services is also conducting its own internal investigation in an effort to ensure such incidents do not happen again. At the time of the incident, the fire truck was travelling northbound on Oakwood Ave., while en route to the fire on St. Clair Ave., with emergency lights and sirens activated. The girl was crossing the road at a crosswalk at Rosemount Ave. when she was struck.
Toronto Fire Services, like all City services, is committed to Vision Zero and continues to reinforce this commitment in all of its operations and training.
As the largest, busiest and most complex fire service in Canada, public safety is ingrained in all that we do. Toronto Fire Services has approximately 225 emergency response vehicles in its fleet and responds to emergency incidents more than 300,000 times every year in Toronto
The firefighter driving the truck remains on active duty. He is a highly trained and experienced firefighter with more than 22 years of service with Toronto Fire Services.
Neither I nor Toronto Fire Services will be commenting further, as this matter is now before the courts.
Toronto is Canada’s largest city, the fourth largest in North America, and home to a diverse population of more than 2.9 million people. It is a global centre for business, finance, arts and culture and is consistently ranked one of the world’s most livable cities. For information on non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can visit http://www.toronto.ca, call 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/cityoftoronto, on Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/cityofto or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/cityofto.