An autopsy has confirmed a toddler pulled from a hot car in a Burlington parking lot Wednesday evening died from being exposed to high temperatures “for an extended period of time,” Halton Regional police said Thursday.

No charges have been laid while the investigation continues.

There still remain many questions about the 3-year-old boy’s death. What is known is that police received a 911 call from an “hysterical” man about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday after the boy’s lifeless body was found in the back of a grey Ford Escape parked at Crossroads Christian Communications on North Service Rd. at Kerns Rd.

Despite resuscitative efforts, first responders pronounced the boy dead at the scene.

Temperatures in Burlington reached a high of 26 C, according to Environment Canada.

A prayer vigil was held Thursday morning at the centre’s chapel, and 100 Huntley Street, Crossroad’s flagship television show, opened Thursday with an emotional call for mourning and prayer for the boy.

“This was a child whose family is a precious part of the team of our building owner, a family who is in deep pain right now as they mourn the loss of their young son,” said a visibly shaken Cheryl Weber, a host of the show.

By Thursday afternoon, a small memorial marked the parking lot where the boy was found. Two stuffed animals rested on the concrete, surrounded by bouquets of flowers.

Police have not said who made the tragic discovery or how long the boy may have been in the car.

The Halton police homicide unit is leading the investigation because of a protocol that mandates all sudden deaths of children under 5 be investigated by police.

“This is an inconceivable tragedy and right now we are focusing on the community and healing,” Sgt. Dana Nicholas said. “Any time a child dies, it is devastating to the family, community as a whole and to first responders.”

Crossroads no longer owns the 1295 North Service Rd. building. It was sold to a numbered Ontario corporation in March, according to property records. That corporation is owned by a Campbellville business owner Shawn Saulnier.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Crossroads noted the building’s new owners “are working closely with authorities while walking with their team through tremendous grief.”

“We continue praying fervently for them and their families, our community, and our staff as we are all affected by this deeply tragic situation,” said Carolyn Innis.

In Canada, there are no national statistics about the number of heatstroke deaths in vehicles, but there are deaths every year.

In the United States, there have been 749 heatstroke deaths of children in vehicles since 1998, according to the website noheatstroke.org. In 54 per cent of those cases, the child was forgotten by a caregiver. In 27 per cent of cases, the child was playing in an unattended vehicle. Most of the children were 3 years old or younger.

Concerned about the phenomena, Dr. Anthony Crocco, medical director and head of pediatric emergency medicine at McMaster Children’s Hospital, took the “hot car challenge” last summer to raise awareness about how quickly things can go wrong.

He lasted about 15 minutes in the car, never allowing himself to get into that dangerous heatstroke range.

Young children are especially at risk of heatstroke because they dehydrate faster and cannot get out of the situation on their own, Crocco said.

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“There is no safe amount time to leave child in a hot environment,” he said.

The first stage is heat exhaustion, in which someone is sweating and agitated, Crocco said.

“The problem is when someone stops sweating … that can quickly go from heat exhaustion to stroke,” he said.

With heatstroke, someone’s core temperature rises so high they become lethargic and the body starts to shut down. Death can be caused by seizure or organ failure.

In the emergency department, they treat kids every year for heat exhaustion and heatstroke, he said, adding that it doesn’t just happen in cars.

The amount of time it takes for a situation to turn deadly can vary significantly depending on the child, temperature and other conditions.

“Every heat exposure death is a tragedy and it’s usually an accident,” Crocco said.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning article published in the Washington Post in 2009, “Fatal Distraction,” recounted the heartbreaking stories of people who had accidentally killed their babies.

“ ‘Death by hyperthermia’ is the official designation. When it happens to young children, the facts are often the same: An otherwise loving and attentive parent one day gets busy, or distracted, or upset, or confused by a change in his or her daily routine, and just … forgets a child is in the car,” the Gene Weingarten story reads.

The Canada Safety Council warns drivers to look twice before locking and always keep cars locked to prevent children from climbing in and becoming trapped.

“It may come as a surprise that more than half of the children left in hot cars were trapped there unintentionally, forgotten in a moment of absent-mindedness, or trapped after playing unsupervised in an unlocked vehicle,” the hot car warning reads.

The safety agency also suggests placing your cellphone, purse or wallet in the back seat, “a strategy that requires you to turn around and check the back seat whenever you leave the vehicle.”

With files from Fatima Syed and Clare Rayment

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