At least part of a commercial building that was engulfed in flames on Queen Street Monday night is being torn down because of the massive amount of structural damage caused by the fire.
Late Tuesday afternoon, demolition machinery was on the scene taking apart the building.
"The walls were unstable because of the tremendous amount of fire damage, collapse of the roof structure, and collapse of various floors," said Wayne Romaine, a spokesman with the Ontario Fire Marshall's office which is investigating the cause of the fire.
David Eckerman, spokesman for Toronto Fire Services, said the three-alarm fire broke out at 367 Queen St. around 12:45 a.m. Tuesday. The three-storey building, at Queen and Peter streets, houses a Roots store and a few residential units on the upper floors.
The fire caused the upper front wall of the building to collapse, and the third-floor ceiling came crashing down onto the second floor. The remaining front wall then bowed out by approximately 30 centimetres, according to Mr. Eckerman.
Patricia Anderson, a spokeswoman with the City of Toronto, said six people, three cats and one dog who lived in the building have now been put up in hotels, and issued vouchers for food and clothing. Ms. Anderson added that there were five apartments in the building where the tenants were not home and had not yet returned home by Tuesday evening.
Mr. Eckerman said people calling about the fire when it first broke out reported hearing explosions within the structure. However, he could not confirm this because no explosions were heard while firefighters were battling the blaze.
When firefighters arrived on the scene, Mr. Eckerman said flames were shooting out of all the windows on the second floor. It took more than a dozen fire trucks and about 45 minutes to extinguish the main body of the fire, but firefighters were still finding smaller spot fires early Tuesday afternoon.
Andrew Kostiuk, a division commander with Toronto Fire, said Monday night's storm had absolutely nothing to do with the fire. Arson is not being ruled out at this time.