A nine-year-old girl who lost her parents and older sister in a Toronto-area house fire earlier this week has been released from hospital after being treated for burns.
The child, identified by family as Zoya Kapadia, 9, spent Tuesday night at the Hospital for Sick Children, where she was treated for third-degree burns to her hands.
She was asking relatives for her parents in hospital, her uncle told CTV Toronto, but tragically, her mother, 45-year-old Jyoti Kapadia, her father Iftikhar Niazi and her sister Amina, died when a fire ripped through their Brampton, Ont. home overnight on Tuesday.
Zoya was the only immediate family member to survive.
The little girl was rescued by Sheldon Teague, who was staying in the basement apartment that night. He was woken up around 3:30 a.m. by the smell of smoke and the sound of screaming. He ran into the burning home.
“I went back inside, tried to get more people and I just couldn’t get through the flames and the smoke,”
The 19-year-old wished he could have saved more people.
“I want to feel good that I got her, but I feel bad that her family had to go,” Teague told CTV Toronto. “And that’s horrible.”
At the burned-out house on Wednesday, neighbours struggled to come to grips with the loss.
“Small child like that, no parents, no sister,” said neighbour Tom Sampson. “I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. We’re all human, you know? I just don’t like to see this stuff, I get upset.”
Officials say the fire started in the living room of the house and spread quickly. The cause was still unknown on Wednesday.
