TORONTO - City officials say an emergency shelter set up for hundreds of people who were displaced after an apartment fire in North York has been moved to a nearby university.
They say York University offered to house the residents at the Tait McKenzie athletic centre and the Canadian Red Cross will provide meals, cots, blankets, personal hygiene items and pet care.
City spokesperson Brad Ross tells our media partner CP24 they want to thank the many organizations that have stepped forward to help displaced residents.
"It's very much a coordinated effort, with the generous offer from York University, with the TTC in transporting residents....the Office of Emergency Management - everybody that's been working around the clock, frankly, since Friday when this tragic fire did break out."
"Now we're able to move residents over to York University, where at least for the next two weeks, they'll have shelter there, they'll have food, they'll have supplies that they need, transportation - while the building owner assesses the damage and when people can go back."
Ross adds that while the building is not safe to be reoccupied yet, limited and escorted access will be made available to those who have pets or those who need to get their medication, if they cannot refill it at a pharmacy.
City officials are hopeful they'll have more information for residents in the next couple days, adding authorities, engineers and restoration experts are working to reopen the building as soon as possible.
Ward 7 councillor Anthony Perruzza, described some of the damage to CP24.
"The fire department showed me photographs of the units. The fire leapt outside the balcony, I'm told by our fire folks and was kind of like sucked into the unit above, and above and above and there's this gutting out of units, one on top of the other and below and those units are completely devastated, so in some of those places, people might not be able to go back in, in short order, but the rest of the building, I'm sure will be fine."
On Twitter, Perruzza thanked Mayor John Tory, York University and all the volunteers for supporting residents in his community at this difficult time.
TWITTER/@PerruzzaTO
Roughly 700 residents were evacuated and one person died when a fire erupted in a 15 storey apartment building at 235 Gosford Boulevard in North York.
Ross says, "About 100 in total took advantage of the Driftwood Community Centre on Friday night and last night, as a shelter. Others may well be staying with friends or family."
Still, the Canadian Red Cross is urging everyone affected by the fire to register with them - whether they have a temporary place to stay or not - in order to stay updated and so they can help residents access support services.
So far, about 165 residents have signed in with the Canadian Red Cross.
The city says residents should also check with their insurance company, if they have tenant's insurance.
"We encourage everybody to always have tenant's insurance to see what can be provided and if they have friends and family who they can stay with over the next period of time, that would also be helpful for them, because we just don't know yet - once we hear back from the building owner, in terms of when they'll be able to get back into their units. It could be some time," says city spokesperson Brad Ross.
And the Red Cross is kindly advising people that they don't require any more donated items to be dropped off at the emergency shelter. They say they have everything they need at this time.
If you want to help, you can still make monetary donations through their website.
CTV News Toronto
With files from The Canadian Press and CP24