The South Bayview Bulldog

Fire at Vaughan mansion causes estimated $10 million in damage https://t.co/JscWOXvyDB pic.twitter.com/vomnL51jbF

— CP24 (@CP24) September 27, 2017

Freakish bad luck seems to have led to the devastating damage at a mansion in Vaughan overnight when cell phones belonging to the occupants were re-charging in the kitchen where the fire started. The blaze, with damage estimated at $10M, sent a man and child to hospital. The three-alarm fire was finally called in when the homeowner drove to a decommissioned fire station on Islington Avenue and picked up a telephone with a direct line to 911, Vaughan Deputy Fire Chief Deryn Rizzi said.  It isn’t clear why the woman could not have called sooner from another source. Deputy Rizzi said one of the patients is suffering from “significant injuries,” but would not specify which one. Firefighters were called to the house on Ava Place in Kleinburg at 5:22 a.m. Rizzi said when firefighters arrived on the scene they saw “heavy flames” coming from the back of the house and the roof.

This weekend’s Bayview Leaside BIA’s Apple Fest will see their 1st Apple Chalk Art Competition! Come out Saturday, September 30th and draw your heart out for a chance to win the top prize of $200 cash!  Starting at noon artists will be picked on a first come first serve basis, with all chalk supplied. Be sure to come to the Bayview Leaside BIA tent that will be set up on the North West Corner of Bayview and Millwood to sign up, grab your supplies and be directed to your sidewalk area. Our judges, The Bayview Leaside BIA Pixies, will be announcing the winners at 4:30pm on Saturday.

Playing with water is good

Blood Clinic Oct 4

Milos Raonic at Leaside Tennis

WoodGreen Community AGM

A charming picture of the kindergarten kids at École Publique and Davisville Public School playing with — what else — water to stay cool. To the right, a visit to Leaside Tennis Club by Milos Raonic after that club won the Aviva Challenge Tennis Club Contest. The insurance firm is partnered with Tennis Canada and the Rogers Cup. Milos enthralled the fans and kids. Lower left, this poster is a reminder that the Leaside blood clinic at Northlea School is next Wednesday. That’s October 4. And finally, WoodGreen Community Services holds its 80th Annual General Meeting at East York Civic Centre, 850 Coxwell Ave. tonight.

25 households

120 volunteers

Checking the books

80 bottles of water consumed on hot day

Have a good day

The NOto Brownlow movement raised nearly $3,000 with its Soudan Ave. street sale on Saturday. Local residents and SERRA (South Eglinton Ratepayers’ & Residents’ Assocation) are fighting the outsized development proposed at 18 Brownlow. The money will be used to advance the SERRA opposition to this project at the Ontario Municipal Board. SERRA VP Jane Auster reports the multi-home yard sale took weeks of preparation and many hours tagging and sorting an eclectic collection of goods. “We set up on Saturday from 7 a.m. By 4:15 p.m. most of the “treasures” had gone to good new homes, and we had raised nearly $3,000,” she says. Also note the SERRA Free Tree offer to be had at the next Apple Tree Market at Davisville Park on Tuesday, October 3 (see poster above).

Ontario’s plan to drive the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2019 will cost the economy as many as 90,000 jobs by 2020, a report from the TD Bank says. It said an analysis reveals employers simply won’t hire the way they would otherwise have done in the short term. “It’s not that come Jan. 1 that there’s going to be 90,000 people laid off,” said TD senior economist Michael Dolega . “It’s that there would have been more jobs created had the economy expanded. Now, these jobs are potentially going to be taken by automation or there’s just going to be less impetus for hiring.”

The US Commerce Department is threatening a 219 per cent duty on Bombardier C-Series passengers jets a year after Delta Airlines bought 125 of the aircraft for a price that is widely guessed to be lower than the list tag. The action is driven by Boeing’s bitter complaint that the Canadian government is subsidizing Bombardier. The department ruled in a preliminary decision that Bombardier benefited from improper government subsidies, which gave the Montreal-based company an unfair advantage when selling in the US. The list price for the planes is around $6 billion, but the actual amount of money involved in the deal has not been made public and Boeing alleges Bombardier offered them for much less. The proposed duty has also upset the British where Bombardier is a major employer in Northern Ireland.

Police remove “drug lab” materials

120 Broadway Ave.

Man found dead

A man has been found dead in what police call a drug lab in a unit at 120 Broadway Ave. between Mt. Pleasant Rd. and Redpath Ave. They arrived about 10 p.m.Tuesday to a medical call to find the man dead inside an apartment.  The cause of the man’s death has yet to be determined. Police say that the building’s residents are all back in their homes.

Weather forecasters say a double-digit drop in the late summer heat wave temperatures will hit Thursday or late Wednesday.  Although temperatures may start off warm on Wednesday, a cold front will move across Southern Ontario through the day ushering in considerably cooler air by the end of the day.

The legendary Coronation Street actress Elizabeth (Liz) Dawn has died at the age of 77. She played Vera Duckworth for 34 years in the durable soap opera. Then, another look at the easy manner in which Prince Harry and Meghan Markle debuted as a couple at Nathan Phillips Square Monday. Below that, Clay Cook of Kitchener showed his bride Brittany just why he is truly her hero when he interrupted their wedding photo shoot to leap into water at Victoria Park to rescue a little boy struggling to keep afloat. Well done sir. And finally, City News tells of this interesting group of volunteers who help people with fruit trees to pick their harvest and give some to charity. Nice

The groom is a hero at Clay Cook interup0ts wedding photo shoot to rescue boy from pond (Darren Hatt/Hatt Photography)

Through MRUC doors

Reverend Debra Schneider of Manor Road United Church has passed on the MRUC Fall Happenings Flyer. It features a new initiative to the broader community led by Allison Marcaccini  This is The Manor Road Community Children’s Choir. The first gathering was Wednesday and Ms. Marcaccini is still open to newcomers. She is offering two free practices for those who would like to come and check it out. The church has a full lineup of Fall activities including some for children. The delightfully named Little Rainbow Fish Drop-In Program and the family-oriented Messy Church invitation to newcomers are two.

Work will begin in October to re-make the intersection of Millwood Rd. and Laird Drive. It’s not likely many drivers are going to like the new configuration. The City will eliminate the Yield curve for traffic headed toward the Leaside Bridge from Millwood/Southvale. All turns at the T-junction will be controlled by traffic signals. Pedestrian crossings will be fitted with audible signals as required by the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act  The changes may make the corner safer for pedestrians but it seems certain to slow traffic. It may well cause the notorious crawl of traffic along Southvale Drive during afternoon rush hours to extend into other time frames. It will, however, prevent illegal tactics used at the Yield curve.  Drivers are known to turn right at the Yield and then U-turn to head north on Laird. Other drivers use the curve to merge with, not yield to, Laird traffic heading south on green. The curve is very busy. Tuesday afternoon it saw a steady stream of cars, trucks, scooters and bicycles whizzing through the right-hand turn. Construction is said to be scheduled to start next Monday, but such timelines are chancy. It certainly is likely to go on for at least two months.