A busy early Saturday morning for the Toronto Fire Service, who responded to a call near Jarvis and Shuter Streets at around 2 a.m.
An abandoned multi-story heritage building at 85 Shuter Street was ablaze.
Toronto Police Fire Chief Matthew Pegg confirming this afternoon that it quickly escalated to a 4-alarm blaze.
Two fire fighters were injured battling the fire, when they fell three storeys from the roof of the building.
Acting Chief Jim Jessop spoke to our media partner CP24 early Saturday morning and updated the status of his two firefighters.
"One of the firefighters is expected to be released sometime this afternoon. That firefighter suffered a broken leg. We do have one of our captains that has sustained significant injuries, so the captain is in the intensive care unit right now under great medical care by St. Mike's."
The captian has been indentified as Jim Warren, a 36-year veteran.
Jessop added that his department had brought in the injured captain's family to be at his side.
CP24
Much too early to determine the cause of the fire, but Jessop confirmed the Toronto Fire investigations Division along with the Office of the Fire Marshal were already on scene scoping out the fire.
Jessop also expressed frustration with the seemingly large number of abandoned structures his crews are constantly asked to go into to.
" To be very honest it's angering, the amount of fires that we have in vacant buildings in Toronto. Abandoned buildings statistically are the greatest risk for firefighters in terms of injuries and fatalities and this is just another example as to why."
Concerns Mayor John Tory, who went to the scene to check things out, agreed have to be better addressed.
"We cannot have our firefighters and police officers and other first responders put at risk by these buildings being too accessible. So I'm going to take that back to City Hall on Monday and we'll see what we can do to make things better."
Tory added one way to go would be to perhaps fence in boarded up property to discourage people from going in, which might also help fast track future plans for those abandoned sites.
Meanwhile, Premier Doug Ford among the many extending their best wishes to the injured firefighters. Ford sent out a tweet this morning:
Heather Seaman
Heather Seaman