An elderly woman has died after a fire in the basement of an Etobicoke home on Tuesday night.

The flames broke out in a house on Rathburn Road near The East Mall. Toronto firefighters were called to the scene at at 8:11 p.m. The fire has been extinguished.

When firefighters arrived on the scene at 8:16 p.m., they encountered a man in the driveway who told them that there was a person in the basement, according to Toronto Fire Acting Chief Jim Kay.

There were flames and heavy smoke coming from the home. Firefighters quickly entered the basement, where they found the woman.

She was pulled out of the home without vital signs and transferred to paramedics outside, he said.

Paramedics took the woman to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Kay said two people, the woman and a man, live in the home, but the man, also elderly, was not there at the time.

"It's a windy evening tonight as well, so the fire was certainly fanned by some of the wind. But the fire itself was quickly put out once the occupant was found and the secondary search was completed," Kay said.

"The fire was certainly very hard to fight initially."

The fire, which got into the walls, has badly damaged the house, he added.

He added there doesn't appear to be anything suspicious about the fire at this point.

Ontario's Office of the Fire Marshal, the Toronto Police Service and Toronto Fire Services are expected to investigate to determine the origin, cause and circumstances of the fire.