Fire crews battle to Scarborough farm blaze

Chopper 24 captured the scene of a huge barn fire in Scarborough, where firefighters are battling the blaze.

Crews are continuing to work on stamping out a large fire that broke out at a farm workshop in Scarborough, Ont., Thursday morning.

Firefighters received a call about the blaze just before 9:15 a.m. after a passerby spotted black smoke at a farm on Beare Road, in the area of Finch Avenue East and Scarborough Pickering Townline.

Toronto Fire said crews arrived to find a workshop on the property fully involved in flames, with smoke visible.

Aerial images from Chopper24 showed heavy smoke billowing from a building on the property where several large vehicles were parked, with flames shooting out the sides of the building. At least one of the vehicles appears to have caught fire as well.

• WATCH: Click the player above to see extended video of the scene

Speaking with CP24 at the scene, Division Commander Rob Hewson said the location poses some challenges in terms of accessing a water supply to fight the blaze.

“We’ve got a train track to the south that is obviously a highlight of what we have to be cautious with, with our hoses and traffic across it,” Hewson said. “So obstacles, challenges are delivering water to the scene.”

Trains through the area were briefly paused, but have since resumed operation.

Fire crews from Pickering and Markham have also sent assistance to fight the fire.

Hewson said crews are working to contain the blaze so it doesn’t spread any further.

A home about 100 metres away from the workshop on the property has not been impacted so far, he said.

In terms of the workshop itself, Hewson said there is little left to salvage.

“It’s a total burn. I wouldn’t say it’s collapsed, but it is a fully engulfed fire,” he said. “We’ve extinguished the wood workshop portion of it and just working on the exposure surrounding it.”

No injuries have been reported so far.

It’s not yet clear how the fire started.

“You can see there is still significant smoke. We are still actively fire fighting,” Hewson said. “Next steps are to fully extinguish and then we’ll bring in investigators, possibly and find out what the cause of it was.”

With files from Beatrice Vaisman