The Toronto Star
TORONTO — A four-alarm fire that destroyed a three-storey apartment building in Queen West, has left 12 people without a home and sent four firefighters to hospital Saturday morning.
Fire crews were called to the scene on Lisgar St. in the Queen St. W. and Dufferin St. area at about 6: 30 a.m.
By 9: 30 a.m., Staff. Sgt. David Woodley said the blaze was upgraded to a four-alarm fire.
More than 80 firefighters were deployed to quell the blaze, which was extinguished by early afternoon.
Queen St. W. was closed for much of the day due to smoke conditions and traffic issues.
District chief of Toronto fire services Stephan Powell said, “We believe smoker’s articles started the fire. The fire started in the basement and spread quickly. It got into the walls and shot through the roof.”
Powell said the estimated damage, including a house that suffered damages north of the apartment, runs to about $500,000.
Four firefighters were sent to hospital. Three suffered minor leg injuries and the fourth will have to undergo surgery after cutting his hand while working on the fire.
The apartment’s residents had already vacated by the time fire services arrived and no injuries were reported.
As recently as Thursday, Toronto fire officials held a news conference warning about careless smoking being the leading cause of fatal fires in the province, following an unprecedented three fires on March 28 that claimed the lives of four people.
Two of those fires, in which three people were killed, were blamed on careless smoking.
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