12 people in hospital following three-alarm highrise fire in downtown Toronto

CP24's Melissa Duggan with what she's hearing from residents and officials who arrived on scene.

Twelve people are in hospital and dozens more have been displaced after a three-alarm fire broke out at a downtown highrise building Saturday morning.

Emergency crews were called to 275 Bleecker Street, in the area of St. James Avenue and Sherbourne Street, around 10:42 p.m. for a fire.

Toronto Fire Chief Jim Jessop said crews encountered heavy flames, thick black smoke, and high heat in the building, especially on the sixth floor where the fire reportedly started.

Viewer video obtained by CP24 shows a large fire on the balcony of a sixth-floor unit, with flames and smoke billowing out.

“The firefighters battled their way down the hallway to extinguish a fire. It took quite a time to find the scene of the fire,” Jessop told reporters at the scene. Crews shortly knocked down the fire.

The chief said firefighters used aerial ladders to rescue several people who became trapped on the balconies because of the smoke.

“This has been a significant fire, and we have had multiple crews,” Jessop said. “Not only were we fighting the fire, we were performing multiple exterior rescues as well as interior rescues, while at the same time starting to ventilate smoke and then concurrently responding to numerous 911 calls from people that were in their units where smoke was migrating in.”

Five of the 12 people in the hospital are Toronto police officers who sustained “non-serious” injuries, Jessop said.

The seven others are tenants, and the chief did not have information on their condition. Toronto paramedics told CP24 that the injuries range from minor to serious.

Jessop said 30 other tenants were assessed by paramedics at the scene.

“The crews will remain on scene for a number of hours. Right now, we continue to deal with smoke throughout the building,” Jessop said.

The cause, origin, and circumstances of the fire are unknown. Jessop said Toronto Fire investigators, Toronto police and the Office of the Fire Marshal are investigating the incident.

Blen Girma, who recently moved into a unit on the sixth floor, was eating breakfast when she heard people yelling.

“When I opened, I just saw a lot of black air, so I just ran out the staircase,” Girma told CP24.

“I was panicking, and I was stressing because a lot of people were yelling.”

Girma said she cannot get back into her residence. She plans to stay at her aunt’s house until she’s allowed back to her unit.

Crews continue to ventilate the smoke. They are asking residents to shelter in place while they complete their work.

Residents who see smoke migrating to their unit or have trouble breathing should call 911 so crews can respond, Jessop said. Toronto paramedics set up two triages at the scene where they could assess people.

“We don’t want people walking down into the hallways, into the smoke or the stairwells,” the chief said.

TTC buses are also at the scene to shelter residents affected by the fire.

Jessop noted that there was no concern for structural safety following the fire.

“The Toronto Community Housing Corporation will have its engineers and Toronto building inspectors will obviously attend again once it’s safe to do so, to go inside to do the assessment. But, you know, these buildings are built with fire compartments, so they’re designed to withstand a lot of heat,” he said.

Mayor Olivia Chow also attended the scene, where she offered her thanks to the many different officials working together.

“I spoke to the head of the Toronto community housing... every tenant that is evacuated will be housed (and) will be fed,” she said, speaking to reporters. “Some of them are in a community centre, and tonight, they will have room in the shelter hotels.”

Jessop later told CP24 that Toronto Community Housing had arranged for temporary accommodation for tenants impacted by the fire.

He added that those who live on the 6th floor won’t be able to return to their units for an undetermined period of time due to the fire and smoke damage. Officials cannot provide the exact number of displaced tenants.

Toronto is currently under a winter storm warning with heavy snow and cold temperatures in the forecast.

One resident, Daoud, who lives on the 20th floor, said he only found out about the fire when he received a call that the building ignited.

He added that emergency crews wouldn’t let him inside the building, but firefighters instructed him that they were “handling it” in addition to sending several alerts to the building.

“People were told to stay on their balconies and put towels under their doors,” he said. “Firefighters are going door to door, breaking doors open and carrying (people) down.

With files from CP24’s Melissa Duggan