Efforts to extinguish historic fire at 2 Toronto buildings to go ‘into next week’

Toronto's fire chief says work on extinguishing a fire at two highrise buildings will continue 'into next week,' meaning those evacuated won't be returning home yet.

Toronto’s fire chief says residents currently evacuated from two buildings in the Thorncliffe Park area due to an ongoing fire will remain away from their homes until at least next week.

Fire Chief Jim Jessop told reporters on Wednesday he recognized this message is “hard to hear” but is necessary.

“The building will remain evacuated until further notice,” Jessop said. “We cannot provide a specific timeframe as to when the fire will be extinguished, except to say evacuation will continue at least into next week.”

Jessop went on to say that the decision was made after careful review by an engineering team involved with the effort to extinguish the fire.

The fire started on Nov. 27, with fire crews called to a highrise apartment building at 11 Thorncliffe Park Dr., where they found “light smoke” throughout multiple floors of the building.

It then spread to another adjacent building at 21 Overlea Blvd.

A total of 378 units have been evacuated since the fire broke out as a result of elevated carbon monoxide levels due to what Jessop called “incomplete combustion.” Crews had recorded readings of 850 parts per million, a life-threatening level.

According to Jessop, the fire is found inside a “narrow gap” where both buildings meet and is creating a difficult environment that is keeping firefighters from extinguishing it.