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Three-alarm fire closes portion of Yonge St.

Posted By: Michelle Rosa · 1/30/2013 8:12:00 AM

A three-alarm fire at a highrise building has closed Yonge Street at  Davenport Road Wednesday morning.

This being the building at 914 Yonge Street on the north side of Davenport, right across the road from the Canadian Tire.
 
The fire broke out around 5:30 and were apparently sparked by water in an electrical room in the basement. The water could have been a result of an earlier water main break. Fire officials say the blaze is contained to the basement where the electrical unit is located, but they are trying to find the source.

Fire officials are asking people who live in the building to remain in their units because there's no active blaze, just smoke that is drifting upwards. Power in some parts of the building is out.

Some residents evacuated on their own accord and say the communication system in the building wasn't working at the time of the fire. It's not yet known when those residents will be allowed to return.

The fire marshal's office has been called in to investigate because crews believe there was a hydro vault explosion that occured when the water leaked into the basement.

As many as 18 trucks and 70 firefighters responded.

A nearby pet shop was evacuated and some animals were treated for smoke inhalation.

Yonge Street is closed between Davenport Road and Belmont Street.

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  1. Frederico posted on 01/30/2013 11:01 AM
    In April 2012, there was a fire here. You can find if you search for fire at 920 Yonge St. There is ILAC language school there with hundreds of international students from all over the world. I hope everyone is ok. Someone needs to check that building. Last year, there was big smoke coming out of it. They have 4 floors of students there. It is there main building.
    There is an Emergency Animal vet there not a pet shop. Many, many animals.
    1. J.A. Shalpa posted on 01/30/2013 03:10 PM
      @Frederico The building Management can't be blamed for the fire which has affected 920 Yonge Street. If you want to point fingers, the City of Toronto is due the most blame for it's aging infrastructure and water mains which break because they are so old and decrepit..

      The cause of the fire in an underground hydro vault was due to water leaking into the transformer room from a broken City of Toronto water main.

      The building itself was evacuated because it is without power due to the fire in the underground hydro vault in front of the building. Toronto Fire Service (TFS) could not get into the basement of 920 Yonge to shut off the water because the room with the water shut off valve was was full of water and electrical equipment. , This caused a very dangerous situation.. TFS had to wait about two hours for the Cit of Toronto to send out a crew to dig up the sidewalk/road in order to shut off the flow of water.

      As I write this at 2.30pm a private contracting company is just arriving onsite at 920 Yonge to pump the water out of the basement. After that is done then Toronto Fire Marshall, City of Toronto Building Inspector(s) and Toronto Hydro will be able to enter the vault and access damage to the electrical equipment, which most likely will need to be replaced.

      The fire in the underground hydro vault has nothing to do with the building itself. The residents and businesses at 920 Yonge Street are the unfortunate victims of a situation beyond their control.

      The only thing the building designers might have done differently would be to have the emergency generator on the roof, as do some other buildings in that area. The downside to that is the noise throughout the building when the generators are running.
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