A lawyer is calling on the City of Toronto to halt plans to relocate some residents back to a north Toronto apartment building that was the site of a fatal fire last month.
Residents began moving back into 26 units of the building at 235 Gosford Blvd. on Dec. 20 following an inspection by city staff and a report by engineers hired by the landlord, Ronkay Management Inc.
By Monday, 73 units are expected to be deemed safe, the company said.
Emergency crews were called to the 15-storey apartment building west of Jane Street and south of Steeles Avenue West just before 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 15. The fire spread through numerous units on multiple floors. It killed one man and is believed to have started in a bedroom on the eighth floor.
Jeffrey Villacorta and his family have been staying in a hotel near the apartment building in the weeks following the fire. Despite assurances his fifth-floor unit is safe, he isn’t confident, especially given his son’s allergies.
“If I’m going to bring them back there in the unit with the dust and everything, it might get worse,” he said.
The lawyer representing some of the tenants, Caryma Sa’d, said families remain worried about air quality, even following tests ordered by management.
“After a fire, danger is not extinguished with the flames.”
Sa’d told Global News residents want a “comprehensive report” from an environmental engineer or indoor air quality hygienist. She said the report must be transparent to residents.
“Soot — it can be difficult, sometimes impossible to remove, especially if we’re talking fine particles in carpet or fabric because when there is a fire and things burn, not all materials burn cleanly,” she explained.
Sa’d insists that until a satisfactory report is produced, any residents who have already returned should move out.
City councillor Anthony Perruzza said he understands residents’ concerns and considers safety to be his top priority, but accepts the word of engineers and city staff that some units are considered safe.
“If we aren’t going to accept the advice from the experts that we hire, who are we going to listen to?”
In an emailed statement to Global News, Ronkay Management said it had gone “above and beyond” in terms of its air quality testing, “including areas that were not directly impacted by the fire.” It said the engineering firm it hired, T. Smith Engineering, had not found any air quality concerns.
The city said staff would be on site next week to determine if additional units are habitable.
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