Crews remain at the scene of a two-alarm fire that tore through an abandoned automotive shop in the Finch Avenue and Weston Road area Wednesday afternoon.
The fire started at an abandoned industrial facility near Rivalda Drive and Bradstock Road at around 1 p.m.
Crews arrived to find a plume of fire and black smoke coming off the roof.
Thick black smoke could be seen billowing from the scene for kilometres around, with many people sharing images of the rising smoke to social media, some from as far away as Vaughan.
“We had a lot of calls on it – huge black cloud of smoke emanating from here,” Toronto Fire Capt. Mike Westwood told CP24 at the scene. “It looks like it’s an abandoned former automotive repair shop. So there are a lot of chemicals in there, a lot of cylinders. There were a lot of explosions heard before we got here.”
It took 12 fire trucks and about 45 firefighters to get the blaze under control.
“We got the bulk of the fire knocked down at about 2:04 this afternoon,” Westwood said. “In about an hour we had the upper hand and now we’re chasing hotspots that are hiding behind building materials or fireload that’s inside the building.”
No injuries were reported and Westwood said firefighters have now taken a defensive ‘surround and drown’ strategy.
Some local roads around the scene remain closed as crews battle hot spots.
Firefighters could remain at the scene for up to two days to make sure the fire is completely stamped out.
