A three-alarm fire at a sandwich shop in Bloordale Village has been extinguished but at least one crew is expected to remain on watch throughout the night in the event of flare-ups.

The fire broke out inside Brock Sandwich on Bloor Street near Emerson Avenue shortly before 6 p.m. and quickly spread to an upstairs apartment.

The fire was initially categorized as a two-alarm call; however it was upgraded to three alarms at around 7 p.m. The fire was then declared out at around 7:45 p.m.

“The restaurant employees and the owner were in at the time. They were actually the ones who discovered it (the fire) and one of the employees tried to put it out with an extinguisher but the wind was driving from the north and it was pushing it further into the restaurant so they immediately left,” Platoon Chief Kevin Shaw told CP24 at the scene. “The tenants upstairs were home as well and they saw the flames shooting up their outside windows and they got out through the front of the building safely.”

Shaw said that crews who arrived on scene were greeted by thick black smoke and a “stubborn fire”

He said that they immediately completed a search of the premises and determined that nobody was left inside, though they did pull a cat from an adjoining unit and provide it with some oxygen.

The cause of the fire is not immediately clear by Shaw said a Toronto Fire Services investigator is on scene.

“The important thing is nobody was hurt,” he said.

Neighbouring businesses were evacuated

During the height of the fire, Bloor Street was completedly shut down in front of the restauraunt and a number of neighbouring businesses were evacuated.

One of the employees at the South Indian Dosa Mahal Restaurant, which is located on the main floor of a neighbouring building, told CP24 that she was ordered out shortly after the blaze began.

“You couldn’t see anything. There was little debris floating everywhere and it was just pitch black,” Mercy Logan told CP24 at the scene. “We are just hoping everyone is OK.”

Motorists are urged to avoid the area as a portion of Bloor Street remains closed in the vicinity of the fire.

Shaw said that at least one crew will keep a fire watch going throughout the night in case of flare-ups.

On Twitter late Saturday night Mayor John Tory said that firefighters did “an outstanding job preventing the fire from spreading to additional buildings.”

“No one was injured and a pet cat was saved,” he wrote.