Firefighters battle four-alarm blaze at Toronto auto shop

Extended: Giant fireball in Scarborough A giant fireball and cloud of smoke over an auto shop in Scarborough lights up the night sky.

Firefighters battled a four-alarm blaze - and the extreme cold - at an auto wrecker in northeast Toronto on Monday.

The fire broke out at Standard Auto Wreckers on Sewells Road, south of Steeles Avenue East, early in the morning.

A Toronto Fire Services spokesman said three people were at the facility and they all escaped without injury.

Standard Auto Wreckers co-owner David Gold said emergency personnel were notified by a security guard who was monitoring surveillance video and noticed flames in a workshop and warehouse area.

Firefighters ran into difficulty because there were no hydrants nearby, Gold told CP24.

Firefighters had to use more than a dozen fire trucks to transport water from a hydrant about a kilometre away. They also had to endure the extreme cold.

The temperature dropped to -19 C while firefighters extinguished the flames, and the wind chill was a bone-numbing -30.

By 8:30 a.m., most of the fire was extinguished and crews were focusing on hot spots.

As a precaution, traffic on a nearby rail line was halted and Sewells Road was closed.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

With files from CP24 reporter Cam Woolley.