Not everything was destroyed in a fire at historic midtown racquet club.
In a letter sent out to members, management said they were finally able to walk around the Badminton and Racquet Club of Toronto Thursday, two days after it was gutted by a six-alarm fire.
“The purpose of this walk through was to identify items of value to be removed from the building for evaluation and possible restoration,” the email said. “This includes artwork, computers and servers, financial records and club archival materials. We are very happy to report that many items seem to be salvageable.”
Managers told members that while the ladies locker room is still considered unsafe, people should be able to recover their contents from the men’s locker room by Wednesday.
The email also cautioned members to refrain from coming to the site until further notice.
“We have been made aware of Members entering the site and even entering the Club to take photos. We cannot stress enough how dangerous this is,” the letter said. “The Club is still an unsafe site and only those authorized and escorted by engineers are allowed in the Club.”
In the meantime, residents displaced by the fire still don’t know when they will be allowed to return to their homes.
The fire, which happened in the city’s Deer Park neighbourhood near Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue, broke out shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday and it took more than 20 hours to get the situation under control.
Several people were evacuated from condos and businesses in the area and some residents have not yet been able to return home.
Some of the buildings impacted by the fire sustained minor smoke and water damage.
Hydro was restored to the buildings last night and Toronto Fire Services says it is now up to the building managers to decide when the buildings can be reoccupied.
The number of displaced occupants has not been released but officials say those people are currently receiving services from the Red Cross.
Additionally, Toronto Fire Deputy Chief Jim Jessop said Wednesday that there will be a couple of orders prohibiting occupancy at some businesses on Yonge Street due to concerns about an unstable wall.
Crews remained on scene on Wednesday night.
"Toronto police and Toronto Fire (Services) were on scene all night long for a bitterly cold night," Jessop told CP24 Thursday morning.
"The building now is going to be turned over to the property owner."
Jessop said the owners will now have to bring in an engineer and decide how to proceed with the property.
Officials say they do not believe there was any structural damage to buildings adjacent to the racquet club.
"Quite frankly, even the smoke damage was minimal," Jessop said.
On Wednesday, the Office of the Fire Marshal and investigators with Toronto Fire completed the physical scene examination and Jessop said it has been determined that the fire is not “suspicious.”
The intersection of Yonge and St. Clair, which was shut down following the fire, had almost completely reopened to traffic by 7 p.m. Wednesday.
