Officials say two firefighters had to be rushed to hospital after they were seriously injured while battling a three-alarm blaze in downtown Toronto early Saturday.
Toronto firefighters told Global News they received a call at 1:56 a.m. for reports of a fire at a building near Jarvis and Shuter Streets.
Deputy fire Chief Jim Jessop said crews in the area located a fire at an abandoned building on Shuter Street and deemed it a three-alarm.
“Upon arrival, our crews were met with heavy flames and smoke,” Jessop said.
While battling the blaze, two firefighters fell from the roof of the three-storey building and one of them — a captain — was very seriously injured, Jessop said.
The other firefighter suffered a broken leg and facial lacerations, but is expected to recover.
“The crews, as always, went into aggressive attack mode and unfortunately (with) the volume of smoke the firefighters did not see (where) they were stepping,” he said.
“We are just really pulling for our captain right now.”
Officials said the fire was then upgraded to a four-alarm and the two injured firefighters were rushed to St. Michael’s Hospital, which is near the scene of the blaze.
Paramedics said both of the firefighters were admitted to a trauma centre.
The firefighter who was seriously injured remained in the intensive care unit as of Saturday afternoon, while the other was expected to be released from hospital later Saturday, officials said.
“There really isn’t a phone call that a fire chief will ever get that bothers me more than one indicating that members of our team have been hurt,” Toronto fire Chief Matthew Pegg said at the scene Saturday afternoon.
“This really is the worst case scenario for me.”
Pegg said the captain who was injured is a 36-year veteran and described him as highly experienced and well-respected.
“I just wanted to come and say thank you to the firefighters who were here overnight but also to say to them that we are all thinking about their captain,” Mayor John Tory said from the scene.
The incident is one of several fires at abandoned buildings in Toronto over the past year, with one of the more notable ones occurring on Labour Day in an abandoned heritage building in the city’s downtown core.
“It’s clear to me … that we have to do a better job,” Tory said.
“We’ve got to make it harder for people to get inside those buildings because that’s where some of these fires are coming from.”
James Doiron, who lives in the area, told Global News he had previously seen a person coming out of the abandoned building, which was slated to be demolished.
There is currently no word, however, on whether there was someone in the building at the time of the latest fire.
It has since been extinguished, but crews remained on scene Saturday to battle hotspots.
There is no word on what caused the fire. The Ontario Fire Marshal is investigating.
– With files from the Canadian Press
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