An historic block of Queen Street West, one of Toronto's earliest commercial districts, is still smouldering hours after an early morning fire that sent a towering plume of smoke and ash over downtown.
At least one of the buildings has collapsed as black smoke fills the air and drifts in a brown haze across the downtown core toward the CN Tower. The building collapse was captured by CHCH and more pictures from the scene can be viewed on Flickr.
The fire broke out early this morning in a row of three-storey brick buildings near Queen and Bathurst streets. The area is considered a historic part of Toronto and some of the shops are 100 years old.
"This is a nightmare," said Paul Mantella, owner of National Sound, as he looked at wreckage of the store he's run for 40 years from across the street. "It's just devastating — and, no insurance. You can't get insurance on Queen Street West."
With tears in his eyes, Mantella said: "It just looks like a war zone."
It took more than 150 firefighters and 30 fire trucks hours just to contain the blaze, which broke out in the storefronts near Bathurst at about 5:30 a.m.
"Right now, we're in a defensive mode, we're not sending firefighters into the building. We're just pouring water onto the building, which as you can see is still smoking... I'm not sure you can it's under control now," Fire Capt. Adrian Ratushniak.
Exhausted firefighters were being rotated in and out of the front lines coated in ice from water which froze on streets, buildings, power lines and rubble almost as soon as it left the hose.
Three people were rescued by ladders from upper residences, but there were no injuries.
"On a host of levels, it's a bloody tragedy," Councillor Adam Vaughan, who represents the area, told cityTV. "It punches a hole in the heart of Queen Street."
Capt. Ratushniak said it was too early to say where the fire started or the cause, but said it spread very quickly through the century-old buildings.
At least six buildings were badly damaged, with buildings housing Duke Cycle and a neighbouring store destroyed altogether.
One building collapsed soon after the fire gutted its interior, and at least two others were considered structurally unsound by firefighters.
The owner of a trendy clothing shop that makes new clothes out of vintage ones said her building has been destroyed.
"All our clothing are one-of-kind originals," said Julia Grieve, the founder and owner of Preloved. “We lost our whole spring collection.”
“It’s so shocking. My designer is so upset because all those clothes can’t be replaced,” she said. Grieve said she believes the fire started in the music shop next door to her own.
Fire officials have evacuated residents from a building east of Bathurst. A number of roads of been closed in the area as the fire has started to spread.
A fire marshall said it is highly unlikely Queen Street will re-open today.
Residents who live in apartments above the small businesses were evacuated and transported by bus to a local community centre.
“They are comfortable and there are emergency services on scene in case they need help throughout the day,” said Staff Sgt. Steve French with the Toronto police.
“We still have no idea what caused the fire or where it started,” he said. French could not yet say how many people had been evacuated.
One witness told Global News that she was “stressed and scared,” while another said he was woken up early and told to leave his apartment.
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