RCMP serious crimes investigators, the B.C. Coroner Service, and the Fire Commissioner’s office are jointly investigating a fatal fire at a Beacon Road home in Hope that claimed the life of an 18-month-old toddler.

According to Hope Fire Chief Tom DeSorcy, firefighters were called to the Silver Creek two-story house at 1:35 a.m. after a “report of a structure fire with people trapped.”

Firefighters arrived at the home to find the entire upper floor of the structure fully engulfed. The intense flames prevented the firefighters from getting into upper floor apartment, where the toddler was trapped.

Once the flames were brought under control and the lives of firefighters were “no longer at risk”, firefighters entered the upper floor unit and “located the deceased child, I believe, in a crib,” added DeSorcy.

According to RCMP Corporal Tammy Hollingsworth there were two people at home in the downstairs apartments at the time of the fire. Both got out of the home safely.

Hollingsworth did not confirm how many people were in the upstair apartment at the time of the fire, where the child’s parents were at the time of the fire, or a suspected cause of the fire.

“That remains under investigation,” said Hollingsworth.

Hollingsworth, however, did confirm that an early report to Fire dispatchers of a second child in the home was a “miscommunication.”