TORONTO -- No injuries were reported after an explosion started a fire, blew out a wall and forced the evacuation of an apartment building in Mississauga Friday morning.
Emergency crews responded to the building at 1850 Rathburn Road East, near Fieldgate Drive, shortly before 9 a.m.
Firefighters confirmed there was an explosion that caused a wall to collapse. Initial reports indicated that the explosion emanated from one of the units.
“Original trucks on scene found that we had difficulties with a fire in one of the units and a possible reported explosion,” Mississauga District Fire Chief Kevin Coffey told reporters at the scene.
“We rescued two people off one of the balconies, that had been doing some work in one of the units.”
He said the two men had just minor injuries and refused to go to the hospital.
“We have also assisted some other people out of the units, more vulnerable people that have been looked at by paramedics as well,” Coffey said.
Peel Regional Paramedic Services said they assessed seven people at the scene, but no serious injuries were found and no one was transported to hospital.
There was a working fire in a third-floor unit, but it has since been extinguished, Peel police said.
It’s not yet clear what caused the explosion. Coffey said an investigator is at the scene to try and determine what exactly happened.
“There is some smoke and fire damage in one of the units, and some other damage in one of the other units where a wall came down,” Coffey said. “The wall that came down was their partition wall. We don't know what caused it at this time, we are investigating.”
He said he’s not yet sure if a smashed window visible from outside was the result of the explosion or of firefighters trying to ventilate the unit.
Several people were on lower level balconies when emergency crews arrived and were escorted off their balconies by firefighters.
Police were going door to door to make sure that residents were out of the building and fire crews were going through the building to make sure that it is still sound.
Coffey said that aside from people who live on the third floor, residents are now being allowed back inside the building.
There is nothing so far to indicate that the explosion and fire were suspicious, but Coffey said the investigator will make that determination and decide whether the Ontario Fire Marshal needs to be called in.
