A Toronto organization that serves some of the city’s most vulnerable people is now in a highly vulnerable position of its own after its newly-renovated downtown space was significantly damaged by a fire.
Late last Friday night, a fire broke out in a laneway outside a three-storey brick building on the northeast side of the Church of the Holy Trinity campus, near Yonge and Dundas streets.
No one was inside when the blaze erupted and no injuries were reported.
The fire, however, spread to the adjacent structure, which was built in the mid-1800s, and travelled up a stairwell and the side of the building, damaging several offices, storage rooms, and meeting spaces and the structure overall.
Maggie’s Toronto Sex Workers Action Project, which has occupied the building’s second and third floors since last March, was hardest hit.
In a note posted on its website, the charitable organization announced that it would be closing its office and drop-in “for the foreseeable future” due to “extreme fire damage.”
For the next week or so, Maggie’s Toronto, which is run by and for sex workers, is taking a short break as its close-knit, nine-member team comes to terms with what happened, executive director Ellie Ade Kur told CP24.com.
“We want to give our employees a bit of time to deal with this (tragedy.) Everyone is really hurt. We’re all devastated,” she said, noting the plan is to start reintroducing some programming both virtually and at other temporary locations by the end of the month.
“We are working to assess the full extent of the damage and salvage as much as possible and we are committed to taking the necessary steps to re-open and rebuild a beautiful, functional, dedicated space for sex workers in our community to co-create and access low-barrier, judgment-free services and supports. To the best of our ability, we will be running off-site programming, but ask for your patience as we work through this difficult moment,” the organization wrote on its website.
Maggie’s Toronto was founded in 1986 and is one of Canada’s oldest sex worker justice organizations offering wrap-around supports and services. For several years, it operated out of a much smaller shared office space near Richmond and Parliament streets, but earlier this year acquired a new space that better fit its needs.
“We had finally landed a great, large space. It was a huge step for us,” Ade Kur said.
“(This fire) is a major loss, but we’re trying to stay positive. I have lots of faith in our team that we’ll be able to rebuild and regrow.”
Pam Trondson, the pastor and interim community director at Holy Trinity, expressed her gratitude to the person who spotted the fire and called 911 right away to report it.
“If (the firefighters) had got there minutes later the whole building would have been gone. We could have lost (it),” she said, adding for now the well-used building is “pretty much out of commission.”
The fire damage to the entire structure is estimated to be at least $500,000.
And while insurance will cover some of the repairs, additional funds will need to be raised for fire recovery and restoration, and to replenish the personal hygiene and harm reduction supplies that were lost.
Maggie’s shared the building with Holy Trinity, whose main church offices along with storage and meeting rooms were located inside.
The two organizations have now launched a joint crowdfunding page. The church is also holding a fundraising concert this Sunday at 1 p.m.
“We’re all rallying together,” Trondson said.
Toronto police along with the Office of the Fire Marshal are currently probing this fire as its cause and origin are “undetermined,” Const. Cindy Chung told CP24.com.
If it is deemed to be an arson, police will “take over the criminal investigation,” she noted.
Toronto Fire Services, meanwhile, said that they responded and extinguished the fire, but are their investigative team is not engaged at this time.
