Toronto Fire Services will be investigating the cause of a three-alarm blaze that destroyed a building in the city’s Entertainment District early Saturday morning.
The fire broke out at around 12:30 a.m. at a building near Peter and Richmond streets.
When crews arrived on scene, heavy smoke and flames were spotted coming from the unoccupied building.
A primary search was conducted by firefighters and no one was found inside the building, District Chief Stephen Hawes told CP24 at the scene Saturday.
“Out of concern for their safety, we went to what is known as a defensive attack where we pulled our crews out of the building and attempted to protect the exposures,” he said.
“As you can tell, the roof collapsed and that’s why we had to pull the crews out of the building and stay defensive.”
At the height of the fire, between 75 and 85 firefighters were on scene.
One firefighter suffered minor injuries but was not transported to the hospital.
“He has resumed his duties,” Hawes said. “In retrospect, the crews are very lucky we didn’t have any other injuries.”
It took approximately two hours for firefighters to get the blaze under control.
Hawes said it is not clear if the building can be salvaged as the second floor, roof, and attic have been completely gutted.
A fire investigator will be on scene later today.
“They will be taking a look at certain areas of the building to determine fire cause and at that point, we’ll have a better idea as to not only where the fire started, but how it started,” Hawes said.
Hawes commended the crews for stopping the spread of the fire.
“The two buildings to the north and the south, the crews did a very good job in saving those buildings,” he said.
He added that it doesn’t appear the adjacent buildings sustained any structural damage.
“We may have some water issues in those neighbouring buildings,” he said. “There was some smoke damage.”
