An early morning fire on Monday, January 3rd closes down the Yonge and Dundas area as the Toronto Fire Department battled with a major fire in the empty heritage building at the intersection of Yonge and Gould streets. The building, across from the Ryerson University campus, has been sitting empty after a wall collapse in early 2010 which resulted in the partial closure of both the Yonge and Gould roadways adjacent to the heritage structure (
http://torontogp.blogspot.com/2010/04/bricks-on-gould-impact-on-yonge-street.html). The Toronto Fire Services reported that today’s fire was a 6 alarm level with 61 units deployed with the initial dispatch at 4:05:19 am (
http://www.toronto.ca/fire/cadinfo/livecad.htm).
See part of the walls collapse under the pressure of the water on my YouTube video here.
Crews were still pouring water into the destroyed shell of a building, which is just one block north of Dundas and the Eaton Centre, during the lunch hour as clouds of steam and smoke continued to rise from the rubble. Reports were that two firefighters had fallen through the roof and were rescued later after suffering minor injuries. Ryerson remains empty of most students during the Christmas break. Over 100 firefighters were involved in trying to get the fire under control which was difficult as the roof of the structure collapsed.
Only streetcars on Dundas Street are being allowed to cross the area as the emergency crews and equipment continue to fill the streets. Luckily the vehicular and pedestrian traffic in Toronto is very light today as the bank and other holidays have a lot of stores and businesses closed and no injuries besides to the firefighters have been reported.
Mist from the fire freezes on the Ryerson University signs.
See more photos of the dramatic event after the jump.
Smoke rises from the wreckage.
CP24's reporter Sue Sgambati reports from Yonge and Dundas.
