Toronto Fire says a four-alarm fire that broke out at a commercial-residential mixed building early Friday has been knocked down.
Fire officials said they were called to College Street just east of Grace Street in Little Italy at around 12:55 a.m.
They said 30 trucks attended the scene with about 100 to 120 firefighters.
The fire department said firefighters were met with heavy smoke and flames going through the roof. They said it appeared the focus of the fire was at the back of the building.
No injuries were reported. No one was found after a sweep of the adjacent units, fire officials said.
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Platoon Chief Tim Algar told Global News about four businesses and 12 residential units were affected by the fire.
The fire was knocked down about an hour after crews were called, at around 3 a.m.
“It was so important to have working smoke alarms. That’s why they are there,” Algar said confirming there were smoke alarms ringing. “It woke some people up, they banged on each others door to get some people out.”
One business owner affected by the fire said their new Mexican restaurant was scheduled to open on Saturday, just a day after the fire broke out. He told Global News they had been working on renovations for a couple of months.
“It’s devastating,” Joe Inacio said. “My wife was crying. She came down here and saw the fire and she’s just devastated … they are going to let us salvage what we can for now and then we’re going to try to contact the insurance company and see how that goes.”
“It’s just bad luck on top of bad luck,” Inacio said referring to the fire and the financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It has to be totally gutted … and re-renovated again.”
An investigation has been launched into the origin, cause and circumstances of the fire.
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