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Police tape surrounds the scene of a fatal fire at a rooming house on St Andrews Street in Toronto. Two people have been confirmed dead with more injured in the fire above a Korean restaurant in the Kensington Market.Fred Lum

Two people are dead and 10 others were treated at hospital for smoke inhalation after a three-alarm blaze in the Kensington Market area of downtown Toronto.

The fire began in an apartment above a restaurant (near Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street West) just before 2 a.m. Thursday and several people were rescued by police and firefighters.

Emergency officials say among those taken to hospital for treatment were two children, about two and four years old.

Before firefighters arrived, Fire Captain Mike Eckerman says police pulled an unconscious woman out of the building, along with a child.

The building has a restaurant on the first floor with several apartments on the two upper floors and in the basement.

Smoke detectors were found inside the unit, but it is not yet known if they were working.

"We brought, I believe, it was seven people down a ladder from the third floor, and we had people rescued at the back," District Fire Chief James Green said.

"It was pretty chaotic."

The cause of the fire is not yet known. The Ontario Fire Marshal's office is investigating.

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